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diff --git a/old/44632.txt b/old/44632.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dace1b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44632.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8843 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hell's Hatches, by Lewis Ransome Freeman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Hell's Hatches + +Author: Lewis Ransome Freeman + +Release Date: January 9, 2014 [EBook #44632] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HELL'S HATCHES *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Bergquist, Ernest Schaal, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + HELL'S HATCHES + + + + + NEW FICTION + + + THE CURTAIN + _By Alexander Macfarlan_ + + THE SYRENS + _By Dot Allan_ + + OLD MAN'S YOUTH + _By William de Morgan_ + + THE PURPLE HEIGHTS + _By M. C. Oemler_ + + HAGAR'S HOARD + _By George Kibbe Turner_ + + THE VILLA OF THE PEACOCK + _By Richard Dehan_ + + IN CHANCERY + _By John Galsworthy_ + + SNOW OVER ELDEN + _By Thomas Moult_ + + EUDOCIA + _By Eden Phillpotts_ + + LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN + 21, Bedford Street, W.C. 2 + + + + + HELL'S HATCHES + + + BY + LEWIS R. FREEMAN + Author of "In the Tracks of the Trades," etc. + + + [Illustration: 1921] + + LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I A REPUTATION QUESTIONED 1 + + II HARD-BIT DERELICTS 10 + + III THE GIRL HERSELF 25 + + IV "SLANT" ALLEN RETIRES AGAIN 38 + + V A SHIP OF DEATH 50 + + VI COMPULSORY VOLUNTEERING 65 + + VII RONA COMES ABOARD 80 + + VIII I LEAVE THE ISLAND 93 + + IX A GRIM TALE OF THE SEA 106 + + X ART AND SUSPENSE 124 + + XI A HERO'S HOMECOMING 142 + + XII A BAD MAN'S PLEA 180 + + XIII THE SCENE OF THE FINAL DRAMA 193 + + XIV HELL'S HATCHES OFF 206 + + XV THE FACE 220 + + XVI A SUDDEN VISITOR 231 + + XVII DOWN THE FLUME 255 + + XVIII THE MASTERPIECE 268 + + XIX AFTER ALL 282 + + + + + HELL'S HATCHES + + + CHAPTER I + + A REPUTATION QUESTIONED + + +"Slant" Allen and I, between us, had been monopolizing a good share of +the feature space in the Queensland and New South Wales papers for a +week or more--he as "the Hero-Ticket-of-Leave-Man" and I as "the gifted +Franco-American painter whose brilliant South Sea marines have taken the +Australian art world by storm"--and now that it was definitely reported +that he had left Brisbane on his way to connect with the reception the +boyhood home from which he had been shipped in disgrace five years +before had prepared for him, I knew it was but a matter of hours before +he would be doing me the honour of a call. + +He simply _had_ to see me, I figured; that was all there was to it: for +with Bell and the girl dead (that much seemed certain, both from the +newspaper accounts of the affair and from what I had been able to pick +up in the few minutes I had been ashore during the stop of my southbound +packet at Townsville) I was the only living person who knew _he_ was not +the hero of the astonishing _Cora Andrews_ affair, the audacious daring +and almost sublime courage characterizing which had touched the +imagination of the whole world; that, far from having _volunteered_ to +navigate a shipload of plague-stricken blacks through some hundreds of +miles of the worst reef-beset--and likewise the most ill-charted--waters +of the Seven Seas on the off chance of saving the lives of perhaps one +in ten of them, he had been brought off and forced to mount the gangway +of that ill-fated schooner at the point of a knife in the hands of a +slender slip of a Kanaka girl. + +To be sure, two or three of the blacks who were hanging over the rail at +the end of that accursed afternoon may have been among the survivors +(for it could have been only the strongest of them that had been able to +fight their way up to the air when Bell chopped open the hatches they +had been battened under ever since the _Cora's_ officers had succumbed +who knows how many hours before); but, even so, their rolling, bloodshot +eyes could have fixed on nothing to have led them to believe that the +greasy shawl of Chinese embroidery the girl appeared to have thrown +affectionately over the shoulder of the belated passenger in the leaking +outrigger concealed the diminutive Malay _kris_ whose point she was +pressing into the fleshy part of his neck above the jugular. + +No, there could be no doubt that I was all that stood between "Slant" +Allen, "Ticket-of-Leavester," beachcomber, black-birder, pearl-pirate +and (more or less incidentally to all of the foregoing) murderer, and +the Hon. Hartley Allen, second son of the late James Allen, Bart., +racing man, polo player and once the greatest gentleman jockey on the +Australian turf. Pardon for the comparative peccadilloes--a "pulled" +horse or two, a money fraud in connection with a "sweep," and the rather +rough treatment of a chorus girl, who had foolishly asked for "time to +consider" his proposal that she come to him _at once_ from the +Queensland stockman who was only just finishing refurnishing her George +Street flat--which, cumulatively, had been responsible for his being +packed off to "The Islands," was already assured, and it looked as +though more was to come--that his "spectacular and self-sacrificing +heroism" was going to wipe out the unpleasant memories that had barred +him from sporting and social circles even before the law stepped in. A +sporting writer in that morning's _Herald_ had speculated as to whether +or not he would be seen again riding "Number 1" for the unbeaten +"Boomerang" Four, with whom he had qualified for his handicap of "8," +still standing as the highest ever given an Australian polo player; and +the racing column of the latest _Bulletin_ had devoted a good part of +its restricted space to a discussion of the possibility that the weight +he had put on in his years of "easy life in 'The Islands'" might force +him to confine his riding to steeplechases. Of the record which had made +the name of "Slant" Allen a byword for all that was desperate and +devilish from Port Moresby to Papeete, from Yap to Suva, little seemed +to be known and nothing at all was said. But then, that old +beach-combers' maxim to the effect that "What a man does in 'The +Islands' don't figure in St. Peter's 'dope sheet,'" was one from which +even I myself had been wont to extract no little solace. + +With nothing but my fever-wracked and absinthe-soaked (I may as well +confess at the outset that I was "in the grip of the green" at this +time) anatomy standing between, on the one hand, and Allen more +despicable than even I, who was fairly familiar with the lurid swath he +had cut across Polynesia, had ever dreamed he could be, and, on the +other hand, an Allen who might easily become more the idol of sporting +(which is, of course, the real) Australia than he had ever been at the +zenith of his meteoric career as a turfman and athlete, it was plain +enough that he would not--nay, could not--ignore for long my presence in +a city that was standing on tiptoe to acclaim him as a native son whose +deed had done it honour in the eyes of the world. It was something like +that the _Telegraph_ had it, I believe. + +Where a word from me (and Allen would know that my friendship for Bell, +to say nothing of the girl, would impel me to speak it in my own good +time) would dash him from the heights to depths which even he had not +yet sounded--there were degrees of treachery which "The Islands" +themselves would not stand for--it was only to be expected that a man of +his stamp would make some well-thought-out move calculated to impose +both immediate and eventual silence upon me. If we were still "north of +twenty-two" I would have had no doubt what form that "move" would take, +and even here in the heart of the Antipodean metropolis--well, that I +was leaving no unnecessary loop-holes of attack open was attested by the +fact that I was awaiting his coming wearing a roomy old shooting jacket, +in the wide pockets of which a man's fingers could work both freely and +unobtrusively. I had shot away a good half-dozen patch pockets from that +old jacket in practising "unostentatious self-defence," and when a man +gets to a point where he can spatter a sea-slug at five paces from his +hip he really hasn't a great deal to fear from the frontal attack of +anyone--or anything--that hunts by daylight. + +Yes, though I hardly expected to have to shoot Allen, at least on this +first showdown, I was quite prepared to do so if he gave me any excuse +at all for it; indeed, I may as well admit that I was going to be +disappointed if he did not furnish me such an excuse. There need be +nothing on my conscience, that was sure, for, if the fellow had had his +deserts according to civilized law, he would have been put out of the +way something like twenty times already. I had heard him make that boast +himself one night in Kai, just before he went under Jackson's table as a +consequence of trying to toss off three-fingers of "Three Star" for +every man he claimed to have killed. Moreover, I had a sort of a feeling +that old Bell would have liked to have seen his score evened up that +way, for he, more than almost anyone I could recall, had marvelled at +what he called the tricks I had tucked away in my "starboard trigger +pocket." But--I may as well own it--my principal reason for hoping for a +decisive showdown straightaway was that I felt sure I could see my way +through an affair of that kind, even with so cool and resourceful a hand +as I knew Allen to be. As an absinthe drinker, what I dreaded was to +have the crisis postponed, knowing all the while that during only about +from four to six hours of the twenty-four would I be fit in mind or body +to oppose a child, let alone a man who, for five years and among as +desperate a lot of cut-throats as the South Pacific had ever known, had +lived up to his boast that he drew the line at no act under heaven to +gain his end. + +It had struck me as just a bit providential that Allen almost certainly +would be coming to see me in the early afternoon--the very time at +which, physically and mentally, I would be best prepared for him. It +varies somewhat with different addicts of the drug, but with me the +"hour of strength"--the interval of the swinging back of the pendulum, +when all the faculties are as much above normal as they have been below +it during the preceding interval of depression--was mid-afternoon. From +about ten in the morning I was just about my natural self--just about at +the turn of the tide between weakness and strength--for three or four +hours; but from about three to five, when the renewed cravings began to +stir and it had long been my custom to pour my first thin trickle of +green into the cracked ice, I was preternaturally alive in hand and +brain. The rigorous restriction of my painting to these brief hours of +physical and spiritual exaltation must share with my colours the credit +for the fact that I had already done work that was to win me a niche +distinctively my own as a painter of tropical marines. How much +absinthe--or the reaction from absinthe--had to do with my earlier +successes was conclusively proven by the way my work at first fell off +when those colourful years I was later to spend with the incomparable +Huntley Rivers in the Samoas and Marquesas began to bring me back +manhood of mind and body and to rid me--I trust for good and all--of the +curse saddled upon me in my student days in Paris. But that is neither +here nor there as regards the present story. + +I had ascertained that Allen's train was to arrive from Brisbane at ten +in the morning, and that he was to be taken directly from the station to +the Town Hall to receive the "Freedom of the City." Then, out of +consideration for the fact "that the hero" (as the _Herald_ had it) was +"still far from recovered from the terrible hardships he had endured as +a consequence of his unparalleled self-sacrifice," the remainder of the +day was to be left at his disposal to rest in. The further program--in +which His Excellency the Governor-General himself was to take +part--would be arranged only after the personal desires of the "modest +hero" had been consulted. + +A 'phone to the gallery where my Exhibition was on--or an inquiry of +almost anyone connected with the show at the Town Hall, for that +matter--would apprise Allen that I was staying at the _Australia_, and +there I knew he would come direct the moment he could shake himself free +from his entertainers. Someone was to take him off to lunch, to be sure, +but--especially as it was reported that he was already dieting to get +back to riding weight--I felt sure this would not detain him long. "It +will be about three," I told myself, and left word at the office that +any man asking for me around that hour should be brought straight to my +rooms without further question. I also 'phoned Lady X---- and begged off +from showing her and a party of friends from Government House my +pictures at four, as I had promised a couple of days previously. Being +borne off to the inevitable and interminable Australian afternoon +teas--or to anything else I could not easily shake myself free from very +shortly after five--was one of the worst ordeals incident to the spell +of lionizing that had set in for me from the day of my arrival in +Sydney. What did I care for Sydney, anyhow? Paris was my goal--gay, +cynical, heartless Paris, who took or rejected what her lovers laid at +her feet only as it stirred, or failed to stir, her jaded pulses, asking +not how it was made or what it had cost. Paris! To bring that languid +beauty fawning to my own feet for a day--even for an hour, my +hour--_that_ would be something worth living--or dying--for. For many +years I had been telling myself that (between three and five in the +afternoon, of course) and now--quite aside from my nocturnal flights +there on the wings of the "Green Lady"--it seemed that the end so long +striven for was almost in sight. + +I lunched lightly--a planked red snapper and a couple of alligator +pears--in my room, and toward two o'clock (to be well on the safe side) +slipped into the old hunting jacket I have mentioned, and was ready; +just that--ready. My nerves were absolutely steady. The hand holding the +palette knife with which (to kill the passing minutes) I began daubing +pigments upon a rough rectangle of blotched canvas on an easel in the +embrasure of the windows, might have adjusted the hair-spring of my +wrist-watch, and the beat of my heart was slow and strong and steady +like the throb of the engines of a liner in mid-ocean. If either hand or +nerve inclined more one way than the other, it was toward relaxation +rather than tenseness. Tenseness--with a man who has himself in hand--is +for the moment of action, not for the interval of waiting which precedes +it. My whole feeling was that of complete _adequacy;_ but then, the +sensation was no new one to me--at that time of day. + +Exhausting the gobs of variegated colour on my palette, I went to a +table in the bathroom and started chipping the delicately tinted linings +from the contents of a packing case of assorted sea shells, confining my +attentions for the moment to a species of bivalve whose refulgent inner +surface had caught and held the lambent liquid gold of sunshine that had +filtered through five fathoms of limpid sea-water to reach the coral +caverns where it had grown. Powdering the coruscant scalings in a +mortar, I screened them from time to time, carefully noting the +gradations of colour--ranging from soft fawn to scintillant saffron--as +the more indurated particles stood out the longer against the friction +of the pestle. At this time, I might explain, I was in the tentative +stage of my experimentation to evolve and perfect a greater variety of +media than had hitherto been available with which to express in colour +the interminable moods of sea and sky and sunshine. The value of my +contribution to art--not yet complete after five years--will have to be +judged when I pass it on to my contemporaries and posterity. Of the part +these colours played in my later and more permanent success (to +differentiate it from the spectacular but transient spell of fame upon +the threshold of which I stood at the moment of which I write), I can +only say that had I been confined to the pigments with which my +predecessors had been forced to express themselves, I should never have +risen above the rating of a second or third class dauber of sea-scapes. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + HARD-BIT DERELICTS + + +With Allen and his coming in the back of my brain, it was only natural +that my thoughts, as I ground and sifted and sorted the golden powders, +should turn to Kai and the train of events leading up to the ghastly +tragedy of the _Cora Andrews_, so distorted a version of which had gone +abroad as a consequence of the fact that Allen was alive and Bell was +dead, and that I, so far, had not told what I knew of the circumstances +under which the one and the other had been induced to board the stricken +"black-birder." + +It must have been, I reflected, its comparative remoteness from all of +even the least-sailed of the South Pacific trade routes that was +responsible for making Kai Atoll, a barely perceptible smudge on the +chart of the Louisiades, the unofficial rendezvous for the most +picturesque lot of cut-throats, blackguards and beachcombers that "The +Islands" had known since the days of "Bully" Hayes and his care-free +contemporaries. Like had attracted like after the original nucleus +gathered, safety had come with numbers, and at the time of my arrival no +man whose misdeeds had not made him important enough to send a gunboat +after needed to depart from that secure haven except of his own free +will. + +Among a score of hard-bit derelicts whose grinning or scowling phizzes +flashed up in memory at the thought of that sun-baked loop of coral, +with its rag-tag of wind-whipped coco palms and its crescent of zinc and +thatch-roofed shacks, only three--or four including myself--occupied my +mind for the moment. Allen--reckless daredevil that he was--had come to +Kai from somewhere in the Solomons for the very good and sufficient +reason that it was the only island south of the Line at the time where +his welcome would not have been either too hot or too cold to suit his +fastidious taste. Bell had come, in a stove-in whaleboat, because Kai +was the nearest settlement to the point where he put the _Flying +Scud_--the trading schooner that was his last command, if we except the +_Cora Andrews_--aground on Tuka-tuva Reef. The girl, who arrived with +Bell in the whaleboat, came because he brought her. The tide-rips of Kai +passage and the Devil's own toboggan were all the same to Rona--at this +stage of the game, at least--so long as the big, quiet, masterful Yankee +was bumping-the-bumps with her. And even afterwards--but let that +transpire. + +I, Roger Whitney, artist, formerly of New York and Paris, and, latterly, +man-about-the French-colonies, with no fixed abode, had been landed at +Kai by a French gunboat from the Noumea station. I packed myself off +from that accursed hole because the suicide of a couple of officers in +whose company I had been drinking absinthe at the _Cercle Militaire_ for +some weeks had reminded me altogether too poignantly of what I might, in +the ordinary course of things, expect to be doing myself before long. A +change of scene and, if possible, a modification of habits was the only +hope. I would never have had the initiative to tackle even the first had +not the feeling persisted that I was on the verge of doing something +worth while with my painting. I went to Kai because the archipelago +thereabouts was reputed to have the most gorgeous sky and water +colouring in Polynesia. + +Neither the promised beauties nor the reputed badness of Kai stirred me +greatly in anticipation. With a bitter smile I told myself that every +night I was seeing sights more lovely than anything my eyes were likely +to rest on short of Paradise, while the Chamber of Horrors in which I +awoke every morning was a veritable annex to the Inferno itself. No, it +was out of the question that Kai could unfold in realities, whether to +delight or shock, things to outdo those that were already mine in dreams +that had themselves become more real than realities. Well, it turned out +that I was only half right, or wrong, whichever way you want to put it. +While, on the one hand, I found the bluff, open badness of Kai rather +more refreshing than shocking; on the other hand, it was hardly more +than a week before I was ready to swear that not the most ethereal houri +that ever laid her cool green hand upon my fevered brow was of a class +to run one-two-three with a flame-quivering slip of a nymph whom I had +surprised at her bath in a beryline pool inside the windward reef. I +began to pull myself together from that hour. Rona, the very sight of +whom threw most men out of hand, had quite the opposite effect upon me. +I knew she was not for me, and the thought that the world actually held +such loveliness in the form of flesh and blood had a sort of reassurance +about it, like the knowledge that one has an ample income from +government bonds. + +Because I had landed from the _Zelee_, and also, perhaps on account of +my rig-out (especially the brimless Algerian sun-helmet), the "beach" of +Kai put me down at once as a "We-we," and, therefore, a creature quite +apart. The only Frenchmen on the island were a couple of escapes from +the convict settlement of New Caledonia, and because neither of them +could ride or shoot or fight with their fists, they had no standing with +the predominant Australian "push," most of whom were more or less handy +at all three. It was, indeed, the fact that, in spite of all my years in +Paris and the French colonies had done to make a physical wreck of me, I +still retained something of the quickness of eye and hand and foot which +had conspired to make my Harvard record as an all-round-athlete one that +only two or three men have equalled even down to the present day, that +gave me such easy sledding in making my way with the "best people" of +Kai. + +It took just three minutes--the length of the first round of the +"friendly bout" I fought with "Heifer" Halligan, ex-welter-weight +champion of Victoria, at Jackson's pub one afternoon--to change Kai's +openly expressed contempt for me to something very near respect. I +thoroughly appreciated the attitude of that breezy lot of sport-loving +rascals toward a Frenchified Yankee artist, especially one that did not +appear to be a fugitive from justice, and so took the first opportunity +to win a standing with them which would at least incline them to let me +go my own way when I wanted to. Notwithstanding my wretched condition, I +outpointed my chunky opponent a good three to one in that opening round; +indeed, the "Heifer's" excuse for the foul which put me to sleep in the +Second was that both his "bloomin' peepers" were so nearly swelled shut +he couldn't see "stryght." But it was my swelling groin and battered +hands, rather than "Heifer's" bruised optics, that came in for first +attention from deft-fingered Doc Wyndham--once of Guy's, on his own +admission. The next day I was waited upon by a delegation sent from +"Jackson's Sporting Club" to urge me to put myself in training for a +go-to-the-finish with "Shark-mouth" Kelly of Suva, the Fiji open champ. +My speed would dazzle a cow-footed dolt like "Shark-mouth" was, they +said, and he would be easy picking for me. They further urged that we +could clean up all the loose money west of the "Hundred and +Eightieth"--what odds would Fiji not give in backing a fourteen-stone +stoker against an artist that only weighed ten stone and looked half +dished with the "green" besides? Moreover, I could keep the whole purse +for myself; all they wanted out of it was the sport. God bless the +scalawags, it was more than half true, that last. + +The funny thing about it was that the project actually tempted me at the +time, principally, I think, because there seemed a chance that the hard +exercise of training--the very thing, indeed, that helped work the +miracle a few years later--might effect me at least a temporary +separation, if not a permanent divorce, from the "Green Lady." I was +still temporizing with "delegations" when the _Cora Andrews_ dropped her +hook in Kai Lagoon and gave us something else to think about. + +If the little cunning I had left with my fists won me the respect of the +"beach," it remained for my proficiency with the revolver--something +which I had never allowed myself to grow rusty in--to give me real +prestige. My father had been only less famous as a pistol shot than as a +builder of steel bridges, and from my birth it had been his dream that I +should carry on the tradition in both lines. If it had broken the old +boy's heart when I turned my back on engineering for art--insisting on +going from Harvard to Beaux Arts instead of to Boston "Tec" as he had +planned--he at least had nothing to complain of on the score of my +aptitude for the revolver. He admitted that I had bred true in hand and +eye, even on the day that he called my "art tomfoolery" a throwback from +my French grandmother. I have always thought that the one circumstance +which prevented the Governor from cutting me off in his will when he +finally had definite proofs of the depths to which I had sunk in Paris, +was the fact that, on my last visit to the old home on the Hudson, I had +beaten him, shot for shot, with his own pistols, and at his favourite +distance. + +They were rather free with their gun play during my first fortnight at +Kai, each little affair having been followed by one or two more or less +ceremonious burials in the coral-walled cemetery on the south lip of the +windward passage. It was merely as a precautionary measure--on the off +chance that they should be tempted to draw me into something of the kind +at a time when I might not be quite on edge for it--that I took early +opportunity to uncover a trifle of what I had crooked in my +trigger-finger. A casually winged gull or two, and a few plugged pennies +(not a miss at the latter, luckily, even when they tried to spin them +edge on to my line of fire) effected all that was necessary. After that, +though they were continually sending for me to come down to Jackson's +and shoot the wire off champagne corks (fizz, loot of some kind, was the +freest flowing drink on the island at the time), or perform some other +equally useful and spectacular gun stunt, not the roughest of the gang +but took the most meticulous care not to press his invitation the +instant it sank home to him that my mood of the moment wasn't of a kind +calculated to blend smoothly with the free and easy spirit of a +beach-combers' carousal. + +It was hardly to be expected that they would ever quite understand why a +man who could "blot out a cove's blinker as easy wiv his fist as wiv his +gun" (as I was told that "Reefer" Ogiston, penal absentee and pearler, +put it one day) and who "'peared mo' than comfitabl' heeled fo' coin," +should be "light an' looney enuf tu go roun' smearin' smashed barnculs +on sail cloth"; and yet it was on that very score--or at least to their +quick comprehension of what I was driving at in my pictures--that the +"beach" of Kai rendered me a priceless service. Almost from the outset +they began to "twig" my marines, to feel the living atmosphere I was +striving to paint into them. They were all men who had lived by the sea, +on the sea; yes, and not a few of them had worked under the sea. Well, +when I began to see those deep-set, wrinkle-clutched eyes squint to a +focus of concentration, and, presently, the quick heave of a hairy chest +as the message of the canvas flashed home, I knew that I was on the +right track. Nothing less than that would have given me the courage to +go on working, as I had set myself to do, on a steadily decreasing +allowance of absinthe, a certain supply of which, of course, I had +brought with me from Noumea. + +So much for me and my relations to Kai at the time of which I am +writing. Now as to Bell.... + +"Who is that tall, square-jawed chap who looks as though he was not +quite sober?" I had asked a day or two after I landed. + +"Yank--calls himself Bell," Jackson replied laconically; adding that he +was "not quite sober" when he tried to take a cross-cut over Tuka-tuva +Reef with the _Flying Scud_, that he was "not quite sober" when he hit +the beach in a busted whaleboat, that he had been "not quite sober" all +the time since, and that there was no doubt that he would still be "not +quite sober" when the time came for him to leave the island, whether he +went out with the tide in an outrigger canoe or shuffled off up the +Golden Stairs. "Allus been pickled and allus goin' to be pickled," +Jackson continued; then, qualifyingly: "Course I don't know he was +pickled when he kum int' the world, but I'm willin' to lay any odds that +he'll be pickled when he shuffles out of it." + +Just about all of which was, or proved to be, "stryght dope." + +After quoting this terse summing of Jackson's, it may sound a little +strange when I say that Bell was a gentleman--not _had been_, understand +(that could have been said with some truth about a dozen or more of us +at Kai), but _was_ a gentleman. Though undeniably never "quite sober," +the fact remained that no one on the island had ever seen him "quite +drunk." And no matter how much liquor he had stowed "under hatches," no +one could say that it interfered either with his trim or his navigation. +His even rolling gait was always the same, whether it was the glow of +his eye-opening plunge at dawn that lighted his face, or the flush of +twelve hours of steady tippling that darkened it at twilight. Nor was he +ever known to omit that gravely courteous, almost "old-fashioned," bow +which, with the flicker of smile that was more of his eyes than his +mouth, was the invariable greeting he bestowed upon friend and stranger +alike. The mellow drawl of his "It's suah goin' to be a fine mawnin'," +had made it easier for me to weather dawns that--in my inflamed +imagination--menaced monstrously in jagged lines like a cubist's +nightmare. If drink had any effect on his speech, it was to incline him +to reserve rather than garrulity. His temper appeared to be under quite +as perfect control as his legs. Even when he broke "Red" Logan's jaw +with a swift short-arm jolt the time that sanguine Lochinvar tried to +nip Rona off his arm as they passed on the beach in the twilight, they +said that Bell hardly raised his voice as he "guessed that'd hold the +varmit fo' a while." And when, a few days later, Doc Wyndham told him +with a grin that "Red" wouldn't be screwing a diving helmet on his block +for some weeks to come, it was said there was real regret in the +Yankee's voice as he hoped that the injury wouldn't be "pumanant." + +Yes, before I had been a week at Kai I felt that there was a little +addition I could safely make to Jackson's comprehensive estimate. I knew +that Bell had been born a gentleman, and--whatever lapses there may have +been, or might be--I knew he was going to die a gentleman. And that also +(had I put it on record) would have proved pretty nearly "stryght dope." + +What stumped me at first was trying to reconcile the remarkable control +Bell maintained over all his faculties in spite of his hard drinking +with the fact (apparently fully authenticated) that he had run +aground--through drunkenness--every ship he had ever commanded, +beginning with a U. S. gunboat. He cleared up that matter for me himself +one afternoon, however, by casually observing--at the moment he chanced +to be watching me trying to transfer to canvas the riot of opalescence +between the _lapis lazuli_ of the barely submerged reef and the deep +indigo where a hundred fathoms of brine threw back the reflection of the +sinister core of cumulo-nimbus in the heart of a menacing squall--that +the sea had always acted as a tremendous stimulant to him, especially +when he trod a deck. + +"If I could just have managed to cut out the whisky at sea, all would +have been smooth sailin'," he said in his deep rich Southern drawl. "On +land--heah ... anywheah--kawn jooce is lak food to me; mah body convuts +it into ene'gy just lak an engine does coal. But with a schoonah kickin' +undah me--we'ell, I guess theah's just one kick too many, something lak +mixin' drinks p'raps. It suah elevates me good an' plenty ... and when I +come down theah's natchaly some crash. My ship an' I gen'aly strike +bottom at about the same time. But, s'elp me Gawd" (a tensing _timbre_ +in his voice) "on mah next command--" + +It was the one sure sign that Bell was beginning to feel the kick of his +"kawn jooce" when he spoke of his "next command." Unless that kick was +beginning to carry a pretty weighty jolt behind it he knew just as well +as everyone else on the beach did that he would never get his Master's +Certificate back again, and that even if he did there was no house from +Honolulu to Hobart that would trust a ship to a man who had already +beached a half-dozen. + +Kai was glib to the last detail--rig, tonnage, cargo, insurance, owner +and the like--respecting the several merchant craft Bell had piled up in +the course of his downward career; but the extent of local "dope" in the +matter of the gunboat episode was to the effect that it happened "up +Manila-way," and that "that was the bally smash that started him goin'." + +Personally, I took little stock in the naval part of the yarn--that is, +at first. Then, one morning--it was the day after the tail of a typhoon +had sucked up the end of Ah Yung's laundry shack and left everyone on +the beach short of clothes--Bell came out in a suit of immaculate +_starched_ whites. It was the cut of the jacket and the way he wore it +that drew and held my puzzled gaze; that its shoulders were "drilled" +for epaulettes and that its thin pearl buttons barely held in +buttonholes that had been worked for something thicker and wider I did +not notice till later. Steady-eyed, lean-jawed, square-shouldered, +ready-poised--not even a flapping Payta _sombrero_ could quite disguise, +nor five years of heavy tippling quite obliterate, the marks of type. +Then I understood why it was that Bell, all but down and out though he +might be, was, and would remain to the last, a gentleman. There are +things the Navy puts into a man that not even a court-martial can take +away. + +The only allusion Bell ever made to his remoter past was drawn from him +a few days later, when--he was watching me paint again--I chanced to +mention that I had spent a fortnight in the Philippines on my way south +from Saigon to Australia. Glancing up at the sound of his sharp intake +of breath, I saw his jaw set over the questions that leapt to the tip of +his tongue, to relax gradually as a faraway look came into his wide-set +grey eyes and a wistful smile of reminiscence parted his lips. + +"Did you heah the band play on the Luneta in the evenin'?" he asked +eagerly, "while the _spiggoties_ in their _calesas_ wuh racin' round the +circle, an' the kiddies an' theyah nusses wuh rompin' on the grass, an' +the big red sun was goin' down behind Mariveles beyond the bay? An' did +you know the Ahmy an' Navy Club--not the new one ... the ol' one ovah +cross the moat inside the wall?" + +"Put up there all my time in Manila," I replied. "A very comfy old +hangout, especially considering what the hotels were." + +"An'--did you--" (he gulped once or twice as though the question came +hard) "did you evah heah them speak at the Club of a chap called Blake +... Lootenant-Commandah Blake? He was a son of Captain Blake, who helped +Sampson polish off Cervera, an' a gran'son of Adm'al Blake. Ol' naval +fam'ly." + +"You mean the man who pulled off that coup when Wood was cleaning up the +crater of Bud Dajo? Some kind of a bluff on his own with one of the +little old gunboats Dewey captured after the Battle of Manila Bay, +wasn't it? Scared some Jolo Dato into giving up a bunch of our men he +already had lined up against a wall to _bolo_, didn't he? Of course, I +remember perfectly now. General X----" (mentioning the Military Governor +of Mindanao by name) "told me the yarn himself the night I dined with +him in Zamboanga. He said no one but an old poker shark would ever have +thought of the stunt, much less had the nerve to bluff it out. +Incidentally he mentioned that the chap was the best poker player in the +Navy, as he was also the speediest baseball pitcher ever graduated from +Annapolis; that he had been missed almost as much for the one as the +other since he dropped out of sight several years before. Some +difficulty about--" + +"Tryin' to push Corregidor out of the entrance to Manila Bay with the +nose of his gunboat," Bell cut in harshly, the hell in his soul glowing +through his eyes as the glare of the coal-bed welters beyond a stoker's +lifted furnace flap. That, and a single sob sucked through his +contracted throat as the vacuum in his chest called for air, were the +only outward signs of the intensest spasm of throttled emotion I ever +saw assail a human being. Then the square jaw tightened, the cords of +the muscular neck drew taut, and what would have been another body and +soul racking sob was noiselessly absorbed in the buffer of a flexed +diaphragm. The fires of agony behind the eyes paled and died down like +an expiring coal. The corrugations of the brow smoothed out as a +smile--half amused, half wistful--relaxed the set lips. The old +controlled Bell (I shall continue to call him so) was in the saddle +again. + +"So they still remembah mah ball-playin'," he drawled musingly, his left +hand digits gently massaging the bulbous swelling remaining after some +red-hot drive had telescoped the middle finger of his right. "Ye'es, of +co'se they'd miss mah wing in the Ahmy-Navy game at Ca'nival time. But +mah pokah--we'ell I reckon a few of 'em did find mah pokah hand about as +bafflin' as mah baseball ahm. But it was straight deliv'ry, tho'--both +of 'em. An' they wouldn't be callin' me a fo'-flushah, etha. No, you +didn't heah any of 'em say that, I'm right suah." + +A smile more whimsical than bitter twitched his lips twice or thrice in +the minute or two he stood alone with his thoughts. "So I've sort o' +dropped out o' sight to 'em?" he said finally. "We'ell, I guess that was +about the best thing to happen for all consuned. But, just the same, if +you evah go back Manila-way I won't be mindin' it if you tell 'em that, +tho' the ol' wing's tuhn'd to glass from long lack o' limberin', an' +tho' I don't play pokah down heah fo' feah o' bein' knifed fo' mah luck, +I'm still hittin' true to fohm in mah own lil' game of alterin' the sea +map with the noses of ships. I reckon they'll know the reason why." + +There was another interval of silence, but, unlike the other, not +charged, electric. Bell's blow-off through the safety-valve of frank +speech had taken the peak off the pent-up pressure within, and when he +spoke again it was merely to quote what the Governor of North Carolina +had said about its having been a long time between drinks. "Great thust +aggravateh, the Sou'east Trade." Would I mind--ahem--hiking home with +him and lubricating my tonsils with a drop of "J. Walkah"? That was +simply his delicate way of pretending to ignore my slavery to absinthe, +a habit which not even the most whisky-saturated sot of an Anglo-Saxon +can ever quite forgive one of his race for falling a victim to. I +wouldn't? "We'ell, _hasta manyanah_." + +With a crunch of coral clinkers under his feet and a stave of "Carry Me +Back to Ol' Virginny" on his lips, Bell, disdaining the smooth path by +the beach, swung off through the pandanus scrub on what he called a +"bee-line for home"! He had a weakness for taking "short-cuts" on land +as well as at sea. Never again--not even in the moment of his great +decision--did he lift for me or any other man the "furnace flap" of iron +reserve that masked the fires of his innermost soul. + +Their saving "sense of sport," which was the golden vein in the rough +iron of the "beach push" of Kai, made it inevitable that they should +have a substantial sense of respect for a man of Bell's stamp, and this +might easily have ripened to an active popularity had not the American's +quiet but inflexible reserve prevented their knowing him better. They +suspected that he was no novice in handling the big Colt's that was +flopping on his hip when he landed, they knew that there was a weighty +punch behind his long arm, and they were frankly outspoken in their +admiration of the manner in which he stowed and carried his booze. But +what had impressed them more than anything else was the way in which he +had taken the devil out of a vicious imp of a Solomon Island pony on the +beach one morning. "Hellish hard-handed," "Slant" Allen had said, as his +steel-blue eyes narrowed down to slits in the intensity of his interest +and admiration; "but a seat like he was screwed to the brute's backbone. +Old cross-country rider--hundred to one on it. Man in a million in a +steeplechase on a horse strong enough to carry the weight. Gawd, what a +seat!" + +All in all, indeed, there was only one thing the "beach" held against +Bell, and that was Rona, or rather his possession of her. There was +nothing personal in this, of course. They merely regarded the big +American in the same light they had always regarded a man with a chest +of pearls or anything else of value that their simple, direct natures +made them yearn for the possession of. There was this difference, +however. Where the "push" of Kai would have combined to a man to get +away with a box of pearls or a cargo of shell, the annexing of a woman +was essentially a lone-hand game, and--well, Bell was hardly the kind of +a "one-man job" any of them cared to tackle. I feel practically certain +that, but for the disturbance of the even tenor of Kai's way incident to +the _Cora Andrews_ affair, his "rights" in Rona would never have been +challenged. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + THE GIRL HERSELF + + +As for the girl herself, words fail me in trying to picture her, just as +my brush and pencil (save perhaps for that one rough memory sketch, done +at white heat while still gripped in the exaltation that first glimpse +of her splashing inside the reef had thrown me into) have always failed. +This is, I fancy, because, unbelievably beautiful though she was, there +was still so much of her appeal that was of the spirit rather than the +flesh--something intangible which had to be sensed rather than seen. She +was compact of contradictions, physical as well as mental. So slender as +almost to suggest fragility at a first glance, there was still not a +straight line, nor an angle, nor a hint of boniness, from the arch of +her instep to the tips of her ears. Again, pixie-like as she was in the +dainty perfection of her modelling, there was yet a fairly feral +suggestion of suppleness and strength underrunning the soft fluency of +contour. The strength was there, too, held in reserve in the flexible +frame like the power of a coiled spring. I saw her unleash it one +morning when, impatient of the slowness of a clumsy Fijian who was +launching a very sizable dugout for her, she yanked him aside by the +hair of his fuzzy head and did the job herself. I can still see the run +of muscles under the olive-silk skin of arm and ankle, and the bent-bow +arch of her slender back, as she gave a last push to the cranky +outrigger. Indeed, my mind is full of pictures like that--paddling, +swimming, leaning hard against the buffets of a passing squall, with a +lock of wet hair streaking across her glowing face and her drenched +garments clinging to her lithe limbs; and yet, as I have said, the +buoyant, flaming spirit of her always escaped my brush and pencil as it +now eludes portrayal by my pen. + +But the most baffling, as it was also the most fascinating, of Rona's +contradictions was the combination she presented of inward intensity and +outward calm. The fire of her was, perhaps, the first thing one was +conscious of. Even I, with my blood thinned and cooled with the ice of +absinthe, could never watch her movements without a quickening of my +jaded pulses; to the sanguine combers of Kai the sight of her (whether +the rippling undulations of arms and shoulders as she drove a canoe +through the water, or the hawk-like immobility of her as she poised on a +pinnacle of reef waiting for a chance to cast her little Dyak purse-net) +was palpably maddening. + +So much for the flaming appeal of the girl in action, or suspended +action, which was, of course, about the only way in which she was ever +revealed to the "beach." Now picture the same creature (as Bell--and +occasionally myself, his only intimate friend on the island--so often +saw her) seated cross-legged on a mat, her sloe-eyes, set slightly +slant, fixed dreamily on nothingness, like a sort of reincarnated +girl-Buddha. The sight of her thus never failed to awaken in my nostrils +the smell of smouldering _yakka_ sticks, and to set my ears ringing with +the throb of temple bells. + +To my hyper-sophisticated (I will not say degenerate) senses this +Oriental side of the girl made a subtle appeal that was like an +enchantment. The passion to paint her--always burning within me when I +saw her in action--never assailed me when she fell into one of those +contemplative calms. Rather the peace of her soothed me like an opiate +and made me content to sit and dream myself. It was the one thing (until +I got the habit by the throat years afterward) that ever held my nerves +steady when the "absinthe hour" drew near at the end of the afternoon. +As long as Rona would continue to "sit Buddha" I had myself completely +in hand, even till well on after sunset. But if she moved, or spoke, or +even showed by her eyes that she was following Bell's words (it was +he--less sensitive to this phase of her than I--who did most of the +talking at these times), the spell was broken. The haste of my bolt for +home was almost indecent. I have sometimes thought that a few months +alone with Rona at this time might have effected very near to a complete +cure in me--by a sort of involuntary mental therapeutic treatment on her +part, I mean. But perhaps the other side of her--the "unreposeful" +one--might have complicated the case. + +Both the fire and the repose of Rona--the passion and the peace of +her--were reflected in the olive oval of her face, the one by the full, +sensuous lips and the sensitive nostrils, and the other by the smooth, +low brow. The low-lidded blue-black eyes were "debatable territory," now +in the hands of one, now the other. So, too, that infallible "gauge of +temperament," whose dial is the pucker between the eyebrows. With Rona, +this "passion-pressure index" was a corrugated knot of intensity or an +olive blank according as to whether her inner fires were flaming or +banked. + +Bell knew little of the girl's origin and said less. "Rona's _trousseau_ +consisted of huh peacock sca'f an' this heah baby _bolo_," he said in +his slow drawl one afternoon when he had borrowed the exquisite little +dagger to show me how the Jolo _juramentado_ executed his favourite +belly-ripping stroke; "an' I reckon they'll comprise 'bout the sum total +of huh mo'nin' at mah fun'ral." That, and "I guess Rona knows no mo' +'bout mah past reco'd than I do 'bout huhs," was all I recollect his +ever having said on the subject. He was content to let it rest at that. + +It was old Jackson who told me that he had seen the girl at +Ponape, where she had been brought by an "owl-eyed" (referring to +horn-spectacles rather than to the almond orbs themselves, I took it) +"chink" when he came back to the Carolines after buying bird-of-paradise +skins down New Guinea-way. She was dressed "Java-style" at the time, and +was said to have been picked up at Ternate or Ambon in the Moluccas. +Although the wily old Celestial kept the girl practically under lock and +key from the first, customers of his shop occasionally glimpsed her, and +she them, it would seem. Among these was the Yankee skipper of the +trading schooner, _Flying Scud_. The coming together of those two must +have been like the touching off of a _ku-kui_-nut torch, Jackson opined, +adding that he supposed I "twigged that thar was no snuffin' uv +_ku-kui_, onst aflar." + +Just how the sequel eventuated no one in Ponape save the old Chinaman +knew, and he never told. With only half her copra discharged, the _Scud_ +was heard getting under way at midnight, shortly after which the +silhouette of her, close-reefed, was observed to blot out the moon three +or four times as she beat out of that "hell's craw" of a passage in the +teeth of a rising sou'wester. The girl was never seen in the Carolines +again. Neither was Bell nor the _Scud_, for that matter, as it was but a +few days later that he attempted his disastrous short-cut across +Tuka-tuva Reef. + +The next morning the Chinaman waited on his customers with his neck +heavily, obscuringly swathed in bandages. He kept these on for a +fortnight or more, and when they were finally dispensed with replaced +his loose shirt with a close-buttoned jacket having an unusually +high-cut neck. Even the latter, however, could not entirely conceal a +number of parallel red cicatrices which, beginning on his fat jowls, ran +down, slightly converging, onto his puffy yellow throat. Jackson felt +sure that the point where those red furrows came to a focus must have +been "fairish messed up." + +On the beach of Ponape opinion was fairly divided as to whether the big, +close-mouthed Yank had "strong-armed" the Chinaman and carried off the +girl bodily, perhaps against her will, or whether she had made the +get-away unaided, going off to the _Scud_ on her own. In Jackson's mind +there were no doubts. + +"I see them welts wi' my own peepers," he said, "an' they wan't the +marks uv a man. They wuz _scratches_. That lanky Yank don't scratch ... +'e _wallops_. But that gal--s'y, did y'u ever tyke a squint at 'er +taloons? Them's the ans'er. She kum to 'im; an' she's stickin' lika +oktypus." + +Again I must credit old "Jack" with handing me pretty near to the +"stryght dope." + +Yes, I had indeed noticed Rona's wonderful fingernails; likewise the +astonishing amount of care she lavished on them. One could not have +helped noticing them. A quarter to half an inch long, meticulously +manicured, and stained a maroon-brown (rather darker than the rich _sang +du boeuf_ of _henna_), she was always polishing them--those of one hand +on the palm of the other--even when "sitting Buddha" with dreaming +half-closed eyes. I inferred the habit of letting them grow was acquired +in the course of her association with the Chinese. She cut them just +short of where they would begin to curl and be a nuisance. A fraction of +an inch longer, and they would have been as useless as the tusks of an +old boar that had curved back more than a half circle. As they were.... + +One man's guess was as good as another's in the matter of Rona's racial +origin. Kai, though agreeing that she came from "somewhere Java-side," +always spoke of her as a Kanaka, just as they did of all the rest of the +"beach" women who were not palpably Jap, Chinese or white. I doubt very +much, however, that she had a drop of real Polynesian blood in her +veins. Flaring with temperament though she was, there was still nothing +about her of the happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care sensuousness of the +Caroline or Samoan, the only women of the Islands to whom she bore even +the faintest resemblance in face or figure. If she had come from +Marquesas-way--but no, not even an admixture of old Spanish pirate blood +would have accounted for either the spirit or the body of Rona. + +The girl's practice of wearing her _sulu_ (Kai used the Fijian name for +the inevitable South Sea waist-cloth which the Samoans call _lava-lava_ +and the Tahitians _pareo_) Malay-fashion--looped over the breasts and +secured by a hitch under the left arm--indicated that her outdoor life +at least had been spent somewhere in the Insulinde Archipelago. Her very +considerable English vocabulary, however, and especially her fluency in +"pidgin," could hardly have been acquired save through some years of +residence in the Straits Settlements or the Federated Malay States. I +was inclined to favour Singapore, especially as she had once let slip +something about a fling at _fan-tan_ at Johore. But even had she been +born in that amazing island melting pot, her unmistakably Hindu cast of +features and mould of figure were hardly accounted for. The Madrassi +Tamils of the Straits were coolies, and Rona radiated _caste_ from her +slender pink-tipped toes to her crown of indigo-black hair coils. + +In my own mind I harboured the theory that the girl was a "by-product" +of the harem of one of the innumerable petty Sultanates of Malaysia, +among which I knew were to be found girls of all the tribes and races of +the Moslem world. In no other way could I account for the flaming spirit +and the physical perfection of her. Not even descent from that strange +Hindu remnant of the lovely island of Lombok, just east of Java (a +theory which I had also turned over in my mind), quite satisfied on both +these scores. As to what sort of a centrifugal impulse might have +operated to spin her forth to the clutches of the currents of the +outside world, I had not speculated very deeply. But--well, I knew +something of the strange currencies in which Malaysian potentates paid +their debts to Singapore rug and jewel merchants! + +In spite of the increasing warmth of Bell's friendship for me, my way to +Rona's confidence proved far from easy sledding. This was partly because +I had got in bad at the outset by starting to sketch that capricious +lady at her reef-side bath in the face of her very outspoken disapproval +of anything so unseemly, and partly because she was slow in making up +her mind that I did not necessarily classify with the predatory males +against whom her whole life had unquestionably been an unrelieved +defence. Obsessed by the desire to paint her, I had not improved my +standing with the girl by asking Bell (after she had refused me +pointblank) to intercede to get her to sit for me. Indeed, that _faux +pas_ on my part seemed to have put an end for good to any chance I might +have had of getting her to pose. Rona was openly indignant that I should +have presumed to regard her own decision as other than final in the +matter, while Bell, though perfectly good-natured about it, was no less +decided in his disapproval. + +"No, sah, I'm not fo' it in the least, ol' man," he drawled decisively. +"Lil' Rona's 'bout the neahest thing to a true, lovin' an' lawful wife I +evah had, awh evah will have, fo' that mattah. So you must see that it +doan quite jibe with mah sense o' what is right an' propah unda the +ci'cumstances fo' me to aid an' abet a proceduah that might culminate in +huh appeahin' on the wall o' somun's bathroom as a spo'tin nymph awh a +wallowin' mumaid. Nothin' doin', ol' man; not with mah blessin'." + +That ended it, of course. From then on I had to content myself with the +hopeless "sketches from memory," in not the best of which was I able to +catch more than a suggestion of what I sought. I could not have failed +more utterly had I set myself to do a "character portrait" of the "Green +Lady" herself. + +But on the personal side it was not long before I began to make an +appreciable gain of ground with Rona. First she ceased avoiding me when +I dropped in for a mid-afternoon yarn with Bell; then she began to +assume a sort of "benevolent tolerance" by coming and sitting on the mat +as we talked; finally she started taking an active interest in the +conversation, coming out of her Buddha-like trances every now and then +to cut in with some trenchant comment in fluent _beche-de-mer_ jargon, +or perhaps a shrewd question phrased in carefully chosen and enunciated +English. + +At last, one memorable afternoon, she came (quite on her own initiative, +he assured me) with Bell to call at the little thatch-roofed, +woven-walled hut I was calling home at the time, wearing in honour of +the occasion her most treasured possession, the "peacock" shawl. It was +this astonishingly fine piece of Cantonese embroidery which Bell had +mentioned as having made up, with the little Malay _kris_, the sum total +of the dower Rona had brought him. It was the first time I had had a +chance to examine it at close quarters and I saw at a glance that, +however it had come into her possession, it had once been a priceless +thing, a real work of art, a treasure fit for the _trousseau_ of a +princess. + +The body of the shawl was amber-coloured silk of so close a weave that +it would have shed water as it stopped light. A rubber blanket would not +have thrown a blacker shadow when held against the sun. Yet so sheer and +fine was the fabric that a twist of it streamed from one hand to the +other as brandy pours out of a flask. The peacock itself, done in a +thousand tints and shades of delicate floss, was all of life-size in +body and something more than that in tail. Stitching and matching, +stitching and matching--you could almost _see_ the artist growing old +before your eyes as you thought of the years he must have bent above his +glacially-growing masterpiece. + +With this rainbow-bright rectangle of shimmering silks worn folded over +the shoulders in the ordinary way the peacock must have been +considerably telescoped and distorted. It was doubtless for this reason +that Rona always wore it Malay-fashion, as the Javanese women wear their +_sarongs_. This displayed the jewel-gay bird in all his pride, the +bright breast swelling over Rona's own and the coruscant cascade of tail +(you could almost hear the rustle of it) falling about her limbs like +the feather mantle of an early Hawaiian queen. + +I have said that this shawl _had been_ a priceless thing. As a matter of +fact it still was such. So lovingly had it been cared for, not only by +Rona but by the many owners it may well have had before her (for Canton +had done no such work as this for half a century at least), that not a +corner was frayed, not a one of its countless thousands of stitches +started. In texture it was scarcely less perfect than the day it was +finished. The only thing wrong with it was that the colours were a good +deal dulled, not by age (for the old Cantonese dyes are as deathless of +hue as ancient Phoenician glass), but by grease. This had happened, I +suspected, largely during Rona's stewardship, for the _tiare_-scented +coco oil she used so freely as a hair-perfume often found its way to her +arms and shoulders--and so to the shawl. All the latter needed to +restore it to its pristine freshness and refulgency was a good +"dry-cleaning." + +"Even Rona does not dream of the brilliance of colour under that +grease," I said to myself. "Oh, for a can of naphtha!" Then the fact +that my benzine would do the same trick flashed into my mind. I was all +but out of it, I reflected, with replenishment uncertain; but I could at +least contrive to spare enough to make a start with. Pouring a teacupful +of the pungent solvent out of the scant pint I found still on hand, I +saturated a clean rag with it and, without a word of explanation to the +girl, walked up to her and started washing the bird's face and hackle. +For an instant she stiffened angrily, evidently under the impression +that my solicitude for the embroidery was only a thinly veiled excuse +for chucking her under the chin. (Indeed, she confessed to me later +that "gentlemen" could always be counted on to employ such indirect +methods of approach, and that she found them rather more difficult to +combat than the straight cave-man stuff of the less sophisticated +beach-comber). But as the first glad flash of brightening colour caught +the corner of a suspiciously-lowered eye, the innocence--even the +laudability--of my purpose shot home to her quick mind. With a twirl of +thumbs and a twist of shoulders, she came out of the shawl as a golden +moth spurns its cocoon, and, leaving it in my hand, darted over to a peg +and purloined an old smoking-jacket to take its place. + +"Bath heem good, Whitnee," she chirruped, giving her slipping _sulu_ a +hitch with one hand as she thrust the other into an arm of the jacket. +"Makee heem first-chop clean. He too much dirtee long time." + +That she lapsed thus into "pidgin" was a sure sign of the girl's +ecstatic excitement. Usually her English--especially when she had time +to ponder and polish it in advance, as when she put questions--was much +better than that. + +Sopping gently to avoid pulling the delicate stitches, I managed to +"bath heem good" from his saucy crest, down over the royal purple +hackle, and well out upon his comparatively sober-coloured breast before +my benzine came to an end. A slightly more vigorous dabbing beyond the +embroidery line "alchemized" a patch of clouded amber to a halo of +lucent gold, against which the bird's haughtily-held head stood out like +the profile of a martyred saint on an old stained-glass window. Thus far +would the precious contents of that teacup go, and no farther. + +Rona was in raptures. What though there was a blotchy high- (or rather +low-) water mark where the dabbing had ceased near the base of the +erupting splash of tail-feathers, what though the magic liquid had come +off second best in its bout with an indurated gob of egg-yolk drooling +across one wing, what though the worst of our Augean labours--the +cleansing of the mighty green tail--had yet to be tackled--just look at +the glory already wrought! + +Crooning with pleasure, the girl stroked and petted the renovated +iridescence of the lordly neck--until I called her attention to the fact +that the still unevaporated benzine was dissolving her finger-nail +stain. It was an ill-advised remark on my part, for it turned her +attention to the still unreclaimed tail and set her begging for "just +nuff fo' one-piecee featha, Whitnee; he need it vehry ba-ad." + +She had her way, of course, and would have finished my benzine then and +there had not Bell come to my rescue. Laughing and muttering something +about "thustiness" (not drinking whisky myself, I had none in stock), he +took Rona by the arm and started off on the homeward path. Strutting and +preening she went, the very reincarnation of the royal bird upon her +bosom, the very living, breathing spirit of "peacock-iness." + +She might just as well have finished the job--or rather the benzine--at +once, though, for she got it all in the end. Every day or two--sometimes +with Bell, sometimes alone--she began paying calls. Always she was in +gala dress and always, after more or less "finessive" preliminaries, she +made the same plea. + +"Just one mo' featha, Whitnee," she would coo ingratiatingly, putting a +long-nailed finger-tip on the "eye" of the particular quill next in line +for renovation. "Ple-ese, Whitnee.... 'Peakie' has been one veh-ry good +fella bird too-dayee. Pu-retty ple'ese, Whitnee." + +Of course that always got me, and incidentally the benzine--as long as +it lasted. I had remarked to Bell once or twice how his soft Southern +drawl was beginning to creep into Rona's English, and how fetching a +combination it made with her "pidgin-_beche-de-mer_" blend. Getting wind +of this, the sly minx played the card to the limit. That "one mo' fetha, +Whitnee," had me fated, and she knew it. I was completely out of benzine +for three weeks, and at a time when I was in especial need of it in +connection with my experiments in colour-mixing; but Rona's friendship +was cheap at the price. When I finally got hold of a five-gallon can of +naphtha from Suva (sent up to Bougainville by Burns, Phillip packet, +where one of Jackson's cutters picked it up), the dry-cleaning the two +of us gave old "Peakie" was the best fun I'd had since I used to scrub +my Newfoundland pup as a kid. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + "SLANT" ALLEN RETIRES AGAIN + + +Although "Slant" Allen had "retired" to Kai on three or four occasions +previous to my arrival, his latest sojourn--the one which ended with his +enforced departure on the _Cora Andrews_--began about a month after I +took up my residence there. Two questions which Jackson asked of the man +who told him "Slant" had landed on the beach the night before have +always struck me as especially illuminative. One was: "Did 'e fetch a +'awse?" and the other--even more laconic--was: "Gin, Kanak, Jap or +Chinee this croose?" + +And equally illuminative was his comment when told that Allen had come +across in a catamaran, bringing neither girl nor horse. "Then 'e musta +sloped in a 'ell uv a rush," said the old trader with finality. + +Kai was frankly disappointed that "Slant" had come without his "stable," +for the "beach race meets" which had made his name a byword throughout +the Islands were always productive (it was universally agreed) of no end +of sport and excitement. Allen, it was claimed, had transported ponies +about the South Seas by every known craft that plied their waters, from +a steam packet to a Papuan head-hunting canoe. Once, in Fiji, he had +even swum a horse across the flooded Rewa in order to get it to Suva in +time to run for the "Roku's Cup." Of course he won out. "Slant" always +did that--by hook or by crook--whether with a horse or a woman. Thus +Kai, in discussing Allen's advent. + +It was characteristic of that hard-hit bunch of "gentlemen and +sportsmen" (a phrase often on the lips of the post-prandial speakers at +their "race-banquets") that they should hasten to tell me that Allen had +once owned a Melbourne Cup winner--"came jolly near riding the gelding +himself, too"--while the fact that he had killed more of his +fellow-creatures than any man of twice his age in the South Seas was +only a matter of casual mention. You had to credit the frank minded and +mouthed rascals for running true to form in that touch of naivete, +though. To them the Melbourne Cup was the greatest thing in the world +beyond any possible comparison: a human life was just about the least. +But they were quite as careless about their own lives as of those of +others, and that alone always raised them in my eyes far above the +pettiness of lesser if more conventionally moral men. + +Although there was not a horse on the island at the time of Allen's +arrival, within a week he had wangled it somehow to have a bunch of +Solomon ponies brought over from Malaite, and at the end of a fortnight +had pulled off the first Kai "Grand National." "Slant" called it that, +he said, because, like the great Liverpool classic from which he +borrowed the name, it was to be a steeplechase. The half-wild little +beasts were brought over on the deck of a trading schooner, travelling +in such restricted quarters in the waist that they had to be thrown and +held down to let the foreboom go over every time she was put about. + +A bit stiff in the knees but uncurbed of spirit, the vicious quartette +clambered out on the beach, shook off the water soaked up during their +swim from the schooner, laid back their ears and stood ready to fight +all-comers with tooth and hoof. As a consequence, naturally, the +preliminaries of the "Grand National" were more in the character of +broncho-busting contests than speed trials, and it was in one of these +that the mighty Bell had won the plaudits and the respect of the "beach" +by breaking the spirit of a wild-eyed lump of a cayuse which had just +managed to give the momentarily overconfident "Slant" a nasty spill. + +The "Grand National" was run round the curve of the beach, with two +"water-jumps," the "stonewall" of the quay, and three hurdles in the +form of old dugout canoes to be negotiated. Bell declined to accept a +mount, and, in any event, his weight would have told prohibitively +against him in competition with any one of at least a dozen lighter men, +all of whom had had more or less actual racing experience. + +Allen was the only one to go the full route at the first running of the +"National," all three of his rivals falling out at the water-jumps. When +one of the defeated riders limped in and started to attribute "Slant's" +win to the fact that he had picked the best-broken if not the speediest +mount, that imperturbable sportsman cheerfully agreed to ride the race +over mounted on any one of the ponies the judges cared to designate. +Again he had a walkaway. It was all a matter of sheer horse-mastership; +the speed of the beast had little to do with it. + +Finally, just to prove that the running was all on the square, "Slant" +rode the race on each of the two remaining ponies, one of which had +strained a tendon and rasped most of the hide off one side of him in +trying to jump _through_ the coral blocks of the quay instead of over +them. We gave the laughing centaur a great ovation when he brought even +the cripple--dripping blood and sweat it was, but still responsive to +the magic of the hand that imposed its will at the pressure of a bridle +rein--under the wire a half-breach-length winner. + +And still more wildly we cheered him when "Quill" Partington--a +broken-down and broken-out (from jail, I mean) newspaper writer, late of +Melbourne and formerly of Calcutta and London--chivvied up an ancient +tortoise that Jackson used to keep around his shop as a pet, and, +mounting "Slant" on the ridge of its shell, offered to back the pair at +catch-weights against anything on the island. "Quill," a most engaging +character, was the poet and minstrel of Kai. He did not, however, figure +in the _Cora Andrews_ affair, save that he later wrote some rather +spirited verses in celebration of it, or rather of what little he knew +of it. + +If the feeling in Kai had been one of disappointment when it was first +reported Allen had landed without a horse, that awakened by the still +more astonishing intelligence that he did not have a girl with him was +somewhat different--rather more akin to apprehension, it seemed to me. +"Slant" was no more of a laggard on the love-path than the race-track, +and the gay gossip of his amazing _amours_ was sipped with the tea of +effete Apia and Papeete with scarcely less gusto than when it sauced the +salt-horse of the pearling fleets of Port Darwin and Thursday Island. +The lightning of his love was likely to strike anywhere, you were told, +sometimes in the most unexpected places. There was that vixen of a +_gin_--a straight Australian aboriginal black--whom he had risked his +life for in cutting across a corner of the "Never-Never" when he ran +away with her, only to have her turn and knife him later in Deli out of +jealousy of a half-caste Portugee Timorese who had caught his fickle +fancy. And--to take the other extreme--there was that little +golden-haired doll of a niece of the Governor of Fiji, who fell heels +over head in love with "Slant" after seeing him play polo in Suva, and +who, when they packed her off for home to break up the disgraceful +affair, made what was described as a really sincere attempt to go over +the rail of the Auckland-bound Union packet. Then there was "Slant's" +affair with that notorious pearl-pirate "Squid" Saunders' girl--the one +the missionaries adopted and tried to reclaim, and who promised for a +while to be such a credit to their teaching--with its ghastly sequel. +And so it went. + +It was said that "Slant" boasted of having a son (he never kept track of +girls, he said) and a saddle in every group west of the "hundred and +eightieth." I daresay this was true, though those who put it _island_ +instead of group doubtless exaggerated. I had landed at several islands +myself where I had been unable to borrow a saddle. + +Most of the little unpleasantnesses that disturbed the _dolce far +niente_ atmosphere of Kai had their roots in the fact that the male +population of the island was always a good jump ahead of the female, +that there were not, in short, enough girls to go round. Under these +conditions the advent of so notorious a "feminist" as Allen could not +but be provocative of a certain anxiety, especially on the part of those +who were (to use Jackson's terse if inelegant expression) "'arborin' +'igh-class 'ens." + +"Don't you coves make no mistake," Jackson was quoted as saying; +"'Slant' 'll be tykin' a myte stryght aw'y. Only question is 'oo's myte +'e's goin' to tyke. If it was any bloke but that squar'-jawed Yank w'at +'ad 'is grapplin' 'ooks slung into the plumage uv that perky peacock +pullet, I'd 'ave no doubt w'at bird 'Slant' ud be baggin' an' draggin' +'ome to broil. But--layin' low as 'e is fer a bit--I'm thinkin' it ain't +_that_ presarve 'e'll be gunnin' in just yet aw'ile." + +"Stryght dope" again from old "Jack." Allen had his own reasons for not +wishing his presence in Kai to be called too forcibly to the attention +of the authorities in the British Solomons, where his latest escapade +(something to do with the forcible recruiting of blacks) came pretty +near the line where they were likely to ask for a gunboat from the +Sydney station to aid in bringing him to book. Allen was by no means +inadept of his fellow men, and he must have known that a showdown with a +man of Bell's stamp--even though he had the best of it and copped the +most desirable thing he ever set eyes on for his very own--could hardly +fail to prove a clash that men would like to talk about, the inspiration +of a tale that would shudder itself from Yap to Tasmania in delirious +beach-comber jargon, setting tongues wagging about him at a time when +publicity was quite the last thing that he wanted. + +Pipped as he was by the pullet's pulchritude (his own expression--he +admitted as much to Jackson offhand) the cool-headed if hot-blooded +Allen evidently decided to ride a waiting race for at least the first +half or three-quarters, and so have something to draw on for the +straightaway. "Easy starter but a hell of a finisher," was the popular +appraisal of "Slant's" way of winning with a horse, and it was but +natural that he should pin his faith to similar tactics where a woman +was in the running. There's a lot in common between the two, and it is +rarely indeed that a man who has a way with the one comes a cropper with +the other. + +It has occurred to me, too, that a very wholesome respect for Bell as a +man may have had a good deal to do with Allen's failure to force the +running at the start in the matter of Rona. The steel of his own hard +purposefulness could not have but struck sparks on the flint beneath the +American's mask of suave reserve at their first meeting, and the +Australian was far too intelligent not to sense that in Bell's Jovian +spirit there was a force more compelling than anything in his own. +Moreover, at riding, fighting and shooting--all that carried much weight +when they judged a man in the Islands--Allen must have known that if the +balance inclined either way, it was in the American's favour. + +It may well have been the sheer rugged, manly forcefulness of Bell that +gave Allen pause, at least in those early weeks before the Australian's +infatuation for the girl became an obsession in which his reason had no +part. For years he had been taking life and property out of downright +contempt for his victims. "I'm the better man, and therefore the more +deserving," was sufficient excuse in his own mind for his most +high-handed outrages. But in Bell--for almost the first time perhaps--he +had met a man who had an "edge" on him--even his soaring ego could not +prevent his recognizing that. This must have been plain to him even when +he measured the Yankee with the yardstick of his own primitive code. +Yes, I really think that Allen, in his innermost mind, rated Bell as a +man who, like himself, had a "right" to the best of everything. I am +even convinced that, for a while at least, he even tried to respect +Bell's right to Rona. + +But do not let me leave the impression that there was one iota of +physical fear of Bell in this attitude of Allen's. From what I had seen, +and was to see, of the cool-eyed Antipodean that was unthinkable, even +though he knew that the powerful ex-athlete could come pretty near to +staving in his ribs with a single punch, and though he may have +suspected that the Yankee was the deadlier man on the draw. I honestly +believe that "Slant" Allen had no fear in his heart of anyone or +anything under heaven. At that time, I mean; what came to him later is +another matter. + +"Slant" ran true to Jackson's "dope sheet" in the matter of "tykin' a +myte," though, but it was done quite decently and in order--that is, as +such things go in the Islands. He put up with "Quill" Partington (an old +pal) for a fortnight, and then, when "Quill's" lyric spirit led him to +run over to Malaite in search of a queer native banjo that someone had +told him the bush niggers of the interior of that island made, strings +and all, from the wild boar, "Slant" simply stayed on to "look after the +pigs and chickens" (as he told them at Jackson's) and, incidentally, +Mary Regan. Mary came from Norfolk Island, and claimed lineal descent +from the mutineers of the "Bounty." Certainly she looked the part--of a +descendant of mutineers, I mean. She had specialized in unhappy love +affairs, and showed it. She had a thin, bony, angular frame, a voice +like the wail of a cracked fog-horn, and a temper "calid enough for +cooking purposes," as "Quill" described it. "Quill," who had developed a +taste for curries and hot seasonings while living in India, claimed that +the reason he had put up with Mary for so long was because of the saving +she enabled him to effect in _paprika_. + +How "Slant"--straight meat-eating and unpampered of palate as he +was--hit it off with the mercurial Mary no one seemed to know. At any +rate, I feel sure that he found her "condimental" disposition useful as +a counter-irritant against the rising fever of his passion for Rona, +something which, though he kept it under astonishingly good outward +control, had been burning with increasing heat from the very first time +he saw her. He confessed that to me later. Curbed passion, like wounded +pride, if it cannot find outward expression, bites inward. With all his +despicable record well in mind, I still cannot help thinking with a +certain admiration of the game bluff the rascal put up during those six +or eight weeks that the enchantment of Rona worked within him, of the +gay, devil-may-care smile that so successfully masked the writhings of +his racked spirit. First and last, there was something about the +fellow--I think it must have been his flaming courage--that attracted me +strongly in spite of all that I knew, and all that I came to hold, +against him. + +Since Kai held no regular intercourse with any of the surrounding +islands, the news that the plague--a pernicious form of bubonic--had +broken out and was making terrible ravages among both the bush and +saltwater niggers of the Solomons was received with no especial interest +on the beach, save perhaps by those who were wont now and then to take a +flyer in "black ivory." The labour-recruiting trade--itself almost the +only medium through which the pest had been spread--was hard hit of +course; indeed, had there been anything like adequate control of the +pernicious traffic at this time, it would have been suspended entirely +until all of the islands from which blacks were being taken, or to which +they were being returned, were able to present something approximating +clean bills of health. + +Since this was not done, however, the only check on the movement of +blacks--infected or otherwise--was the possible reluctance of the +masters of ships engaged in the trade to take the risk of carrying them. +And since the average black-birding skipper lived as a matter of course +with a gun in one hand, his life in the other, and the devil's tow-line +between his teeth, it was hardly to be expected that a little thing like +the spectre of the "Black Death" looming up on the windward horizon was +going to make him reef much canvas. The "Black Death" in another form +would ambush him sooner or later anyhow. With niggers waiting to settle +accounts with him in every bay it was only a matter of time at the best. +Why worry about a few cases of a disease that might not kill him even if +he did get it? Heave in and get under way! That was about the way the +black-birder looked at it, and he went right on scattering infected +niggers around the South Seas like a cook stirring raisins into a +pudding. + +But in the secluded and peaceful haven of Kai lagoon they reckoned that +they had little to fear from the epidemic whatever happened elsewhere. +Let the plague and the heathen rage for all they cared. They were their +own quarantine officers, and, until the "Black Death" ceased to stalk in +the neighbouring islands, "No Visitors" was the order of the day. All +very simple and efficient--in theory. Covered every possible +contingency--just about. + +I had spent several colourful days once--getting about from island to +island in the New Hebrides--with red-haired old Mike Grogan on the _Cora +Andrews_, and had heard from that hard-fisted giant's own lips something +of the grim balances checked against his life in practically every +black-birding island of Melanesia. A black's home bay holds a +labour-recruiting skipper responsible for the man's safe return at the +end of his contract time, and if he does not come back they figure that +the only fair way to even up the score is by killing the captain of the +ship which took him away. Grogan calculated that he would have to be +killed something like one hundred and forty times to make a clean sheet +of all the accounts thus reckoned against him. He took a sort of grim +pleasure in running over the items of the various tallies, but always +ended with: "B'gorra, the devils'll be gittin' me yit!" He was convinced +that it would be a "cutting-out" party that would do for him in the end, +and I have no doubt that he fought over in his mind that final bloody +showdown every night he stood the "graveyard" watch alone. A sudden +volley from the bush, his whaleboat caught in a swarming rush of blacks, +his crew disabled or deserting, and himself alone battling it out +single-handed with the niggers at the last.... It was something like +that he expected for a grand finale, and all the "fighting Irish" in him +yearned for it as a sunflower turns to the setting sun. + +"An' it ain't as if I won't be givin' the spalpeens a run for their +money, me bhoy," he had cried one afternoon, clapping me on the shoulder +where I swayed with him to the plungings of the _Cora_ in a nasty +cross-swell. "An', b'gorra, it's a way to die after a man's own +heart--shootin' an' clubbin' into a mob o' niggers out under God's own +sky!" + +Full as my mind was of other things on that accursed day of which I am +about to write, I could not help but think of these words when they told +me at Jackson's that old Mike's fighting spirit had passed on a windless +midnight, and while Mike himself was jack-knifed over the _Cora's_ +wheel, spitting blood and curses, and imploring the devil to quit tying +knots in his tortured guts with a red-hot pitchfork. + +What little we heard of how things came to go wrong with the _Cora_ in +the first place fell from the blackening lips of her "Agent" (as the +recruiter is called), who managed to reach the beach of Kai in a +whaleboat, and who did not go into a delirium until a half-hour before +he died that evening. She was packed to the hatches with "return" boys +from Samoa. Although the plague had been claiming a very heavy toll +among the Melanesian blacks of the coco plantations of Upolou, Grogan +decided to take a chance at making the Solomons with a load which, on +account of the risk, was offered him at double rates. They would have +made it all right, the Agent thought, had not the southerly gale which +blew them a long way out of their course been followed by many days of +calms and alternating winds. Grogan's softness in trying to doctor the +first case of plague--instead of following the customary practice, cruel +but effective, of shooting the infected black (doomed anyhow) and +throwing the body to the sharks--was probably responsible for the +ghastly sequel. The blacks fell sick by dozens, until at last the +Skipper--doubtless already in the first throes of the disease +himself--ordered every living man except the surviving members of the +crew driven below and battened under hatch. Grogan died that night and +the mate the following morning. + +The only white man remaining was the Agent, and he, obsessed with a +life-long horror of being buried at sea, steered the best course he +could for the nearest island. The _Cora_, luckily heading into the +treacherous reef-beset passage at the turn of the tide, dropped her hook +in Kai lagoon in the first flush of the dawning of the next day. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + A SHIP OF DEATH + + +With a good many days of my life to which I cannot look back without +a blush of shame, I write deliberately when I say that the one +ushered in by the raucous grind of the _Cora Andrews'_ chain running +through its hawse-pipe as she let go anchor a couple of cables' +lengths off Kai beach, stands alone in the horror and the painfulness +of its memories. It is characteristic of all but the most degraded of +beach-combers--doubtless their general contempt of life has much to do +with it--that "once in a while" they "can finish in style"; that, on a +showdown, they are usually there with the goods. I had always felt sure +that, in a pinch, I could force myself to come through in the same +way--the thought had gilded many a slough of despond for me. Well, this +day, I had my chance and funked it--funked it clean, as a yellow dog +slinks from a fight with its tail between its legs, as an underbred +hunter refuses a jump. Oh yes, I had an excuse. "Seeing green" is next +thing to "seeing yellow." Almost anyone knows that. But I had thought +that there was enough red blood left in me to make it possible for me to +take the bit in my teeth and finish like a thoroughbred at the last. But +there was not. That was the thought which had made the ghastly tragedy +even more tragical to me, which made a mockery of the triumph which I +might otherwise have felt when, first Australia and then Europe, +acclaimed me as the greatest marine painter of the decade. + +For several days previous to the coming of the _Cora Andrews_ I had +been slipping up pretty badly on my "absinthe reform" program. It was +largely the fault, I think, of a positively infernal spell of weather. +The ozone-laden trade winds, falling light after a spell of low +barometer, had finally failed altogether. Kai was lapped in sluggish +moisture-saturated airs that clung like a wet blanket. The Gargantuan +popcorn-like piles of the trade clouds were replaced by strata of +miasmic mists which awakened all the latent fevers in a man's body and +mind. The sea, slatily slick of surface, heaved in oily, indolent +smoothness, sliding over the reef without sound or foam. The brooding, +ominous sullenness was all-pervading, oppressive with sinister +suggestion. + +Everyone on the island was drinking heavily, and mostly alone. No tipsy +choruses boomed out from under the sounding-board of Jackson's +sheet-iron roof. Even "Slant" Allen failed to appear for his wild +end-of-the-afternoon dashes up and down the beach. Rona dropped in +languidly one afternoon to say that Bell was tilting the bottle more +frequently than she had ever known him to do before, and that for three +days he had missed his early morning plunge from the reef. + +"Too much walkee with Jo'nnee Walkah, Whitnee," she punned in a feeble +flicker of pleasantry. "I veh-ry much worree along Bel-la." + +She needn't have worried, though. _He_, at least, had the stuff in him +for a proper finish. + +It was only to be expected that I should seek solace in a time like this +by snuggling closer than ever into the enfolding arms of the "Green +Lady." That fickle jade was at her best--and her worst. Never had she +winged me to loftier pinnacles of sensuous delight; never had she +dropped me to profounder depths of horror and despond. The night before +the _Cora_ came marked a new "high"; also a new "low." I dropped like a +plummet straight from a pea-green grotto full of lilies of the valley, +maiden's hair ferns and ambrosia-breathed houri to the fire-scorched +cliffs ringing the mouth of the Bottomless Pit. I knew that Pit of old. +Most of the early hours of my mornings for the last five years had been +spent in trying to keep from being pushed into it. + +But this time, though, it looked as if they were going to get away with +it. Failing to break my grip (I always managed to hang on somehow), they +had tried new tactics. They were pushing in the side of the Pit itself +so as to carry me with it. I felt the relentless creeping of the ledge +on which I struggled to maintain precarious footing. If I could only +push back into the rock ... through it ... out to the air! Nothing could +stand against the mighty heave I gave with my shoulders. The cliff +parted with a great rip-roar of rending, and I reeled back, back, +straight through--the pandanus siding of my hut. An instant before a +nigger had knocked off the shackle of the _Cora's_ anchor chain. The +unchecked run of forty-odd fathoms of rusty iron links through a +hawse-pipe is very like in sound to the rending of a rocky cliff--that +is, to a man in an absinthe nightmare. + +That violent awakening did not bring me straight back to normal by any +means. You never come out of the "green horrors" that way, unless, of +course, you fall into water, or set fire to the house, or do something +else that calls for instant action. You usually come out by gradual +stages, each successive one marked by a shade more of the earth-earthy +than the last. + +In this instance my fall only changed the spirit of my nightmare. I was +by no means out of the woods, either. I had backed away from the Mouth +of the Pit all right, but what brought that Ship of Death--black and +sinister she was against the bloody redness of the infernal +sunrise--unless it was to take me there again? I _knew_ that it was a +real ship. I _knew_ those black things festooned along its rails were +real dead men. I _knew_ that the horrible reek which presently came +pouring in over the oily water to penetrate my contracted nostrils was +the real smell of rotting flesh. I _knew_ that I was looking out at Kai +lagoon, and from the door of my own hut. I _knew_ these things, just as +I _knew_ it was real blood I saw and tasted when I bit my finger to +prove that I knew them. + +But it was still as in a dream that I became aware of an erratically +rowed whaleboat pulling away from the Death Ship and making for the +beach. It was with an agreeable sense of relief that I noted that it was +apparently heading for the quay rather than in my direction. Drawing +near, it sheered away from the weed-slippery landing and went full-tilt +for the beach. A man--a big man, bare of legs and of chest, wearing only +a red _sulu_--ran down to meet it. It seemed no more than a perfectly +natural development of the ghastly pantomime that the big man should +raise a revolver and shoot one of the black rowers when the latter +jumped over the gunwale of the whaleboat and started to bolt up the +beach. I saw the flash from the revolver, saw the fugitive crumple and +fall, and the sharp report, impacting on the side of my sheet-iron +rain-water tank, slammed against my ear-drums with a shattering "whang." + +That close-at-hand shot had the effect of shocking me back a notch or +two more nearer normal; but, nerve-shattered as I always was at the end +of a night, it was something very akin to the abject terror that gripped +me as I backed away from the Brink of the Pit which now impelled me to +"back away" from the new menace. Seizing my painting things from sheer +force of habit, I slunk off through the long early morning shadows of +the coco palm boles, not to stop until I came out upon the broken coral +of the steep-shelving leeward beach of the island. It was as far as I +could go without swimming. + +Here Laku, my Tonga boy, found me toward noon. The coffee from the flask +he brought was the first thing to pass my lips since I had poured my +last drink the night before. It steadied me somewhat, but my nerves +still refused to react. The shock of the morning had been too much for +them. I realized that Kai had a mighty knotty problem on its hands with +that shipload of dead and dying niggers in the lagoon (Laku had told me +it was the _Cora_, and something of what the trouble was), and it took a +lot of screwing before I got my courage up to a point where I could +force my reluctant feet to carry me back to shoulder my share of the +responsibilities. + +I was still streaking and dabbing at my canvas at three o'clock, and it +must have been nearly an hour later before I packed up and started back +toward the village. I burned that bizarre rectangle of colour-slashed +canvas on the very first occasion (which was not until a day or two +later) that I had a chance to stand off and look at it objectively. +There was revealed in it too much of the utter unmanliness which marked +my conduct on this most shameful day of my life to make it a pleasant +thing to have around. For me to have kept it would have been like a +man's framing and hanging the excoriation of the judge who had sentenced +him for some despicable crime. + +What had transpired in the village up to the moment of my return at the +end of the afternoon I must set down as I learned of it later. +Everything considered, it seems to me that Kai--with one or two notable +exceptions--behaved very creditably in an extremely trying emergency. +Awakened when the _Cora's_ anchor was let go, a number of men had run +out to the beach, from where their glasses quickly gave them a pretty +good idea of the state of affairs aboard the luckless black-birder. Then +they got together at Jackson's--the lot of them in their pajamas or +_sulus_, just as they had tumbled out of their sleeping mats--to decide +what was to be done. The majority at first seemed inclined to stand by +their predetermined plan of shooting the first, and every man from a +plague-infested ship that tried to land on the beach. But at this +juncture Doc Wyndham, calling their attention to the fact that a +whaleboat had already put away from the _Cora_, suggested that they wait +and learn just how things stood before starting off gunning. + +"I'm with you as far as shooting any nigger that tries to break +quarantine goes," he said, "but I'm dam'd if I'll stand by and see +anyone take a pot shot at Mike Grogan, or any other sick white man, for +that matter. Old Mike nursed me through a spell of 'black-water' once at +Port Darwin, and if he is in that boat I dope it it's up to me to tote +him home to my shack and do what I can for him. If he can't clamber out +I'm going to wade in and carry him back to the beach, so you'll have to +shoot the two of us if you shoot at all. But I don't think you will. I'm +not asking any of you chaps to have anything to do with the stunt. You +needn't touch him. I'll take him home and swear not to budge from there +till the thing's over one way or the other. After that I'll put myself +in a ten-day quarantine. Moreover, I won't be expecting attention from +any white man or nigger on the island in case the luck goes against me +and I catch the pest myself. It's my own little game and I won't stand +for any interfering in it." + +That was the gist of Doc Wyndham's remarks as Jackson outlined them to +me the next day. They met with hearty assent from all of the dozen or +more present, except on the score of letting the Doc have the job all to +himself. He turned down every one of the volunteer nurses, however, +saying it was his own kettle of fish and that he'd have to stew it in +his own way. He even insisted on meeting the boat alone, urging that +there was no use in multiplying the points of possible "plague contact." + +So it must have been the distinguished surgeon from Guy's that I saw +shoot the bolting black that morning. Had I continued to watch, instead +of bolting myself at that juncture, I would have seen him wade out, lift +a man tenderly from the stern-sheets of the whaleboat, and start +carrying the limp body up the beach to where a spreading bread-fruit +tree shaded the door of the sheet-iron shack which he was wont +humorously to refer to as his "professional, social and domestic +headquarters for Melanesia." Following that, I would have seen a bunch +of motley-clad figures prance down and start menacing the irresolute +boat-pullers with flourished revolvers, forcing the frightened blacks to +back off and begin splashing their wobbly way out to the _Cora_. + +Wyndham's conduct all through struck me as rather fine, especially for a +man who was a convict of three continents and two hemispheres. +Disappointed in finding his friend Grogan in the whaleboat, on learning +that the latter and his mate were already dead, Doc just as cheerfully +set about paying to the Agent the debt he felt he owed to old Mike. +Before entering his house, he called to his girl--a saucy little Samoan +named Melita, who had gone right on sleeping through all the +racket--ordering her to make a hurried departure by the back door and +not to return until he sent for her. The Doc was never a man to let +sentiment interfere with business, Jackson opined. + +Making the doomed man as comfortable as possible in his own canvas +folding bed, Wyndham deferred giving an opiate until he had gained such +information as he could of how things were on the _Cora_. Then, after +communicating (from a safe distance) what he had learned to a delegation +from executive headquarters at Jackson's, he nailed a red _sulu_ to his +front door as a danger signal and disappeared behind the bars of his +self-imposed quarantine. + +I may as well state here that Wyndham--thanks, doubtless, to the +precautions which he, as a medical man, would have known how to +take--side-stepped the plague completely, quite as completely, indeed, +as he sidestepped the Thursday Island customs authorities a year or so +later, when a half season's shipment of pearls from Makua Reef, Limited, +disappeared as into thin air. + +Of the information Wyndham gleaned from the Agent before giving the +latter a shot of morphine to relieve his agony and mercifully hasten the +inevitable end, the most important as affecting Kai's action was that +something over a hundred blacks had been battened down in the schooner's +forecastle and 'midships hold for seventy-two hours, with nothing but a +couple of stubby wind-sails feeding them air. The dead had all been +cleared out before this was done, but there were a lot of bad cases +among the living who were driven or thrown down the hatches. By the +stench, the Agent knew that some of these had already died; but that +many still had life in their bodies he judged by the unabated vigour of +the howling. + +The most reassuring news passed on by the dying man was that Ranga-Ro, +Grogan's gigantic Malay Bo'sun, had remained in charge of the _Cora_, +and that he appeared to have the black crew (only three or four of them, +luckily, had succumbed to the plague so far) well in hand. That +brightened the outlook a good deal, for what Kai had feared above all +else was a general breakout and stampede, which might inundate the +island with plague-infected niggers, crazy beyond all possibility of +control. + +Ranga, who claimed to have had at one time or another every tropical +disease on record, was--or believed himself to be--a plague immune. He +was not in the least worried over the responsibilities that had fallen +on him, and could be counted upon, the Agent thought, to see the game +through. The only trouble was that he couldn't navigate, so that if the +_Cora_ was going to be taken to a port where any real relief could be +obtained, she would have to have at least one competent white officer. +Would Kai furnish that officer? was the question up before the meeting +called at Jackson's to decide what should be done with the ill-fated +black-birder. + +This was rather a larger assemblage than the one which had gathered at +dawn, called up by the rattle of the _Cora's_ anchor-chain. The latter +was mostly made up of the "inside push," "Jackson's Own," as they were +sometimes alluded to, and that they were a dead game bunch of sports was +attested by the way in which they had volunteered in a body to nurse for +Doc Wyndham. The later and more representative meeting was hardly up to +the earlier one on the score of quality. There were a few out-and-out +rotters on the island, and about the worst of these was a typical +Wooloofooloo larrikin from Sydney, whose name I have forgotten. As foul +of tongue as of face, he was as sneaking and cowardly as a wild Malaite +pup reared in a black-birder's galley. He it was who, with a smirk on +his tattoo-defiled face, got up and suggested that the simplest way out +of the difficulty was to "blow up an' burn the bloomin' 'ooker w'ere she +lies. Cook the bloody niggers to a frizzle, pleg an' all." Give him a +few sticks of dynamite and he'd pull off the bally job himself. + +The leering wretch, in his eagerness, pushed right out in front of +gaunt-framed old Jackson, who was "presiding." "Wi'out battin' a +blinker," as he told me later, that old Kalgoorlie outlaw took the +proper and necessary action. His straight-from-the-hip kick doubled the +miscreant up, breathless, speechless, upon the floor--the only floor of +sawed boards in all Kai. He rather favoured that method when he had to +throw a man out, Jackson explained, on account of the convenient parcel +it made of him when lifted by the back of his belt. + +When Jackson called the meeting to order again and explained what word +Wyndham had sent as to the lay of things on the _Cora_, "Froggy" +Frontein, one of the escapes from Noumea, his Gallic soul aflame, popped +up and volunteered to sail her to any non-French port in the Pacific. +That brought a cheer for "Froggy," but the enthusiasm died down a bit +when it transpired that the only ships the gallant ex-counterfeiter had +ever boarded in his life were the steamer which deported him from +Marseilles and the cutter in which he--buried under copra in its +hold--had escaped from New Caledonia. + +More competent volunteers were not lacking, however, and several of +these were trying to urge their respective claims at once when "Slant" +Allen's magnetic glance drew the eye of the chairman and he was given +the floor. + +Calling several of the more insistent of the volunteers by name, "Slant" +asked if it had occurred to them that the nearest port which had +quarantine facilities equal to handling more than a dozen cases of +infectious disease was in Australia--probably Townsville, but possibly +Brisbane. They admitted that they hadn't thought that far ahead. + +"In that case," Allen cut in with, "it may be in order for me to point +out that there's not a one of the whole mob of you young hopefuls that +wouldn't be pinched and clapped in the brig just as soon as they saw +your face and recollected what it was you sloped for in the first +place." + +That shot made some impression, though "Crimp" Hanley seemed to think he +had countered not uneffectively when he asked: "Who in hell thinks he's +going to last long enough to get her there?" + +What "Slant" had got up to say, he went on without deigning to engage +the logical "Crimp" in argument, was that there was one first-class +sailor in Kai against whom nothing was booked in Australia, a man, +moreover, who had been known to be looking for a command for a number of +months. He referred to Captain Bell, who, he regretted to say, had not +been summoned to their meeting. If it was agreeable to those present, he +would be glad to wait upon Captain Bell and acquaint him with the facts +in connection with the emergency which confronted them all. In the event +that Captain Bell should see fit to assert his claim to this place of +honour, as he had no doubt would be the case, he--"Slant"--was in favour +of giving that claim precedence over all others, both because of Captain +Bell's well-known ability as a navigator (his late slip, they would all +admit, was due to circumstances quite beyond his control), and because +he was the only competent man available who would not have to step out +of the frying pan into the fire on making port in Australia. What was +more, in case Captain Bell felt that he needed a mate for a voyage which +could not but be beset with much danger and many difficulties, +he--"Slant"--wished to take the occasion to put in his claim for that +berth. He had been in bad in Sydney, he had to admit, but it was nothing +very serious, and he felt assured that, in a pinch, there were certain +influences which could be counted upon to get him clear. No fear that he +would not be seen in the Islands again in due course. + +Considering what "Slant" was really driving at, you'll have to admit +that this was put with consummate adroitness. The meeting voted by +acclamation to allow him to carry out his suggestion, adjourning in the +meantime to await developments. It was significant, in the light of what +transpired later, that Allen flatly refused the offer of Jackson and two +or three others to go along to Bell's with him and "make a delegation of +it." + +No suspicion was aroused by the fact that Allen, on the way to Bell's +shack, stopped in at his own for five or ten minutes. Indeed, nothing +that he did at any time awakened anybody's suspicions--among the beach +push, I mean. + +When "Slant" came out of Bell's at the end of half an hour, he was +accompanied by the American, the latter apparently leaning heavily on +the Australian's shoulder. This occasioned little surprise, as Bell, who +had hardly been seen for the last three days, was believed to have been +drinking heavily. Instead of returning round the curve of the beach to +report at Jackson's, as it had been assumed he would, "Slant" led the +way to a little dugout canoe lying in the shade of the coco palms in +front of Bell's and started pulling it down to the water's edge. When it +was seen that the slender Australian was doing most of the tugging, +while the big American seemed to be blundering about to small purpose, +it was remarked at Jackson's that Bell, for the first time since he hit +the beach of Kai, appeared to have stowed enough booze to submerge his +"Plimsol" and affect his trim. At the same time it was admitted that the +Yankee was a wonderful "weight-carrier"--nothing like him ever seen in +the Islands. It was thus that they mixed nautical and racing idiom at +Jackson's Sporting Club. + +When the little canoe was finally launched, Bell, helped by Allen, +stumbled forward and slithered down in the bow. The Australian plied his +paddle from the stern. It was remarked that the dugout's progress was +very slow, but "Slant's" leisurely paddling was attributed to the care +he had to take on account of the trim Bell's lopsided sprawl gave the +cranky craft. + +By the time the canoe slid in alongside the _Cora_, Bell appeared to +have collapsed completely. Lifting carefully by the shoulders, Allen was +seen to raise the inert body in the bow enough for a hulking yellow +giant--easily recognizable as the lusty Ranga-Ro--to throw a mighty arm +around its waist. Then, with his other arm looped round a stanchion, he +swung his burden high above the rail and into the arms of two of the +black crew. Thereafter nothing was seen of the _Cora's_ new skipper for +an hour or more. + +"Doosed smart loadin'," was Jackson's laconic comment on the teamwork +Allen and Ranga had displayed in hoisting Bell's husky frame out of a +wobbling canoe and up over the _Cora's_ four feet of freeboard topped by +five strands of "nigger wire." + +Allen did not go aboard, but continued to lie alongside for ten or +fifteen minutes, evidently giving extended orders to the Malay bos'n. +Immediately the canoe pushed off, great activity was observable among +the crew, who were evidently rushing preparations for getting under way +before the ebb began to race through the passage. + +The rate at which Allen paddled back to the beach was in marked contrast +to his leisurely progress on the way out. Grounding the canoe on the +beach near where it had been launched, he made directly for the door of +Bell's house and bolted inside. Reappearing almost immediately, he came +on along the beach at a more deliberate gait. + +At Jackson's he told them that Bell had jumped at the chance of taking +the _Cora_ to Townsville.... Said it might be the means of getting his +master's certificate back in case he pulled it off all right. But +he--"Slant"--couldn't allow a white man to tackle a job like that alone. +He had only landed to pick up his kit and a few things Bell wanted. He +was going to get back aboard the _Cora_ before they began to shorten in. +It was going to be a ticklish job, fetching the passage from where she +lay in those fluky airs. + +Leaving Jackson's, Allen went to his own (or rather "Quill" +Partington's) house, where, according to what I heard from Mary Regan a +couple of days later, he took several drinks but did not do anything +toward throwing his things together. A half-hour later he was seen +hurrying along the beach to Bell's again, and when he came out from +there it was in the company of a girl--plainly the "Peacock." Paddled by +a third party, who came upon the scene at this juncture, these two went +off to the schooner, boarding her just as she filled away on the first +tack of the almost dead beat to the entrance of the narrow seaward +passage. For all they knew on the beach, Allen was carrying out his +program (with the little incidental of Rona--doubtless taken along at +the last moment by way of a surprise for Bell--thrown in), just as he +had outlined it to them. They were not hurt by his failure to say +good-bye. They were not strong for the gentler amenities in the Islands, +anyhow. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + COMPULSORY VOLUNTEERING + + +As a matter of fact, however, there had been a very considerable slip-up +in "Slant's" carefully doped slate. That was plain from a number of +little things which sunk into even my absinthe-addled brain in the few +minutes I spent in his and Rona's company while paddling them off to the +_Cora_. How staggering a slip-up it must have been for him I was not +able to figure until I got my nerves under control the following day. + +I was still far from pulled together when I came back to the village +after my day of hiding (for that's what it amounted to) on the other +side of the island. With my head twanging like an overstrung banjo, I +was feverishly anxious to get home and seek relief in the only thing I +knew would relax the tension of my breaking nerves. I had told Laku to +"putem littl' fella pickaninny in rock-a-bye belonga him" just as soon +as he got back to the shack. This was a long-standing joke between us, +and I knew that he would interpret aright this _beche-de-mer_ order to +"put the baby in its cradle" as a strict injunction to lay a certain +long green bottle in a little basket of porous coco husk, which, +dampened and hung in a draught, answered the purpose of a crude +refrigerator. The vision of the slender green trickle I should shortly +pour from the dewy fresh lip of that bottle was drawing me on as the +thought of the oasis with its fountain draws the thirsting desert +traveller. + +Between horrors fancied and real--from my struggle at the mouth of the +Bottomless Pit to the coming of the Ship of Death--my nerves had +suffered a number of trying shocks since the dawning of that accursed +day; but the one that came nearest to bowling me over I had still to +receive. I had _known_ there was a Bottomless Pit; I had _known_ there +was a Death Ship; I had _known_ they were shooting niggers on the beach. +As each of these horrors was projected upon my vision in turn I had +accepted their reality as a matter of course. Didn't I see them with my +own eyes? Didn't I continue to see them after I had bitten my finger? +But _Rona, with her arm and her peacock shawl thrown over "Slant" +Allen's shoulder, coming out of Bell's house_.... No, that wouldn't +do.... That was one thing they couldn't put over on me. My eyes must be +playing tricks on my brain. I must be in even worse shape than I +thought. Never before had my fancy conjured up a thing so utterly, +impossibly absurd. Wide-eyed and open-mouthed, I pulled up and started +kicking the shin of one foot with the toe of the other. That was another +little trick I had of proving whether or not I saw what I "saw." + +At the clink of the broken coral under my shuffling feet the girl turned +her head in my direction, but, far from releasing "Slant's" neck from +her embrace, she only drew the lanky Australian closer with her right +arm, while with her left she beckoned me imperiously. + +"Whitnee, come alonga this side, washy-washy!" Her thin clear voice cut +the air like the swish of a rapier. + +It was, strangely enough, the fact that she lapsed into the vulgarest of +_beche-de-mer_, rather than the eagerness of her gesture, that drove +home to my wandering wits the fact that Rona was confronted with +difficulties, that she needed help. Verging on nervous and physical +collapse as I was (and as I knew I would continue to be until I had +gulped my first steadying draught from the cool green bottle), the +realization that something concrete was demanded brought me instantly +out of the half-trance in which I had walked since dawn. Still a sorry +enough specimen, I was at least sufficiently in hand not to need any +more finger-bitings or shin-kickings to know the difference between what +seemed real and what was really real. Letting my easel go one way and my +paint box the other, I hastened forward in answer to Rona's summons. + +"Katchem washy-washy one piecee boat," Rona began as I came up, her +heaving breast, flushed face and flashing eyes revealing the emotion +that held her in its grip. + +"Man-man; my word, what name this fella thing you do?" I interrupted +between breaths, blurting mixed _pidgin_ and _beche-de-mer_ English of a +brand to match the vile blend the girl had discharged at me. + +"I too much cross this fella 'Slan','" she started to explain. "Him too +much--" + +"You'd think she was cross with me, Whitney, if you could see the way +she's sticking me in the neck with her hat pin," Allen cut in, the +half-sheepish, half-amused grin he had worn from the first broadening as +he spoke. + +That was the first "straight" English to be spoken, and the words had +the effect of reminding Rona that she had been speaking nothing but low +jargon from the outset. For weeks she had been taking the greatest pains +to avoid both of the weird volapuks in all her chats with me. Pulling +herself together with an effort, she strove again to be a purist. + +"'Scuse me, Whit-nee," she chirruped, paying "Slant" for his sally with +a prod that made him duck like a prize-fighter avoiding a straight-arm +punch; "'scuse me, but I'm veh-ry mad. This bloody boundah he put +_kor-klee_ in Bel-la's drink. He take Bel-la to schoonah. Now we all go +off to schoonah. If Bel-la he dead, then I keel this boundah, 'Slan'.' +You will do us the paddl'?--ple-ese, Whit-nee." + +There was a deal more that I would fain have been enlightened about, but +my brain was clear enough now to understand the urgent necessity of +getting off to the _Cora_ without delay. A drugged man (or a poisoned +one--it was not until later that I learned how that strange essence of +the wild Papuan fig might be expected to act) on a plague-infested +black-birder looked like just about the last word in hopelessness; but +(I told myself) if there was anything I could do for my friend, it was +up to me to try to do it. Rona seemed to have some sort of plan in her +head, though just what she was taking Allen along for I didn't quite +twig at the moment. + +The funny part of it was that the Australian didn't seem particularly +averse from going off to the schooner. Indeed, it was he who cut in to +call Rona's attention to the fact that they were rushing preparations on +the _Cora_ for getting under way, adding: "If you don't want to be left +at the post I might suggest you whip up a bit." Even as he spoke the +throbbing wail of a chantey came to our ears across the water, and I +could just make out the blur of motion on the forecastle where a knot of +niggers was circling round the capstan. + +"Washy-washy! Quick! quick! Whit-nee," implored Rona, leading the way, +with Allen's head still in the crook of her arm, to the canoe; "we must +make the great hur-ee." + +Luckily, the dugout, although Allen had left it pulled well up on the +beach when he landed, was half awash through the rising of the tide, now +just about to ebb. I launched it without difficulty. Still with her +knife at "Slant's" neck, Rona made him enter ahead of her and crouch in +the bottom of the canoe, well forward, while she seated herself on the +sinnet-wrapped thwart immediately behind his hunched shoulders. When the +unabashed rascal coolly leaned back and started to make himself +comfortable with an arm thrown over her knee, the girl stiffened with a +start of repulsion. It was more than a prick she gave him this time, for +I saw the sudden swell of his jaw muscles wipe out the lines of his grin +as his teeth set over a repressed oath. + +Pushing off, I slid gingerly along the port weatherboard until the canoe +heeled just enough to bring a gaping hole in the starboard bow clear of +the water that started to pour through it, and began to paddle +cautiously inside the outrigger, the only place I could get at from +where I sat. Our progress was, of course, slow as to speed and wobbly as +to direction. Even at that, a good deal of water kept slopping in, and I +couldn't blame Allen, who was sitting in it, for asking Rona if she +minded if he baled a bit with his sun-helmet. + +Her only reply was another prod with the needlepointed _kris_. (I knew +it was the little Jolo dagger, for I had seen it as she adjusted her +shawl on sitting down). "Hur-ee, Whit-nee," she urged, quiveringly +tense, and continued to keep her flaming gaze riveted on the schooner, +where the latter, foot by foot, was moving up on her shortening chain. + +About halfway out Rona gave a start and a glad little cry. "I see +Bel-la," she laughed. "He stand up by wheel. By jingo, he look--he look +like he lick his weight in wile cats!" + +That had been the big Southerner's favourite expression when, glowing +with the reaction from his deep, eye-opening dive from the reef, he +would come prancing back to his door of a morning. The sight of his bare +muscular torso, white as marble against the dingy folds of the +half-hoisted mainsail, must have called up in the girl's mind the +picture of Bell breezing in from his bath, and brought the tersely +quaint phrase to her lips. As a matter of fact, there was no saying at +that distance _how_ Bell looked; but it was good to see him on his feet, +at any rate. Probably Rona had been mistaken about the poisoning. + +"I told you he was all right," Allen remarked drily, shifting a few +inches to get clear of the water that was beginning to swish about his +knees. "He was drunk--dead drunk; that's all. He began to buck up an +hour ago. Looked through my glass and saw them dousing him with water. +First thing he did was to take a drink (plenty of it aboard)--saw him +tilt the bottle. Then he must have made them open up the hatches. +There's more than the crew lining the rail there for'ard; besides--you +don't think the slop-chute from the galley spills out the bait that's +drawing those black fins, do you? I won't need to tell you they don't +belong to chambered nautili out for an afternoon sail. There's a +man-eating shark under every one of them. Can I lend you my binoculars?" + +He started to slip the strap of the powerful racing glasses over his +neck, but desisted when Rona refused to clear the way by lifting the +point of her dagger. Save for maintaining that one important little +point of contact, she ignored him completely, and "Slant" seemed rather +to resent the latter more than the former. + +"Well, if you don't want to use it, I suppose you won't mind if I have a +bit of a look-see," he went on in half-assumed petulance. Rona replied +with the usual prod, but interposed no further objection when he raised +and began focussing the glasses. + +"Clubbing niggers on the fo'c'sl'," he commented presently, as signs of +commotion were visible forward. "Skipper don't want 'em too thick on +deck while he's getting under way, most likely." + +Then, a minute later: "Looks like you'll need an ice-breaker to clear a +passage through those sharks, Whitney; or perhaps we can walk across +their backs from the edge of the jam. Seem to be thick enough to give +good solid footing." + +And again, shortly: "Chain almost straight-up-and-down, Whitney. Mudhook +going to break out in a couple of minutes. Can't accelerate that 'long, +long pull' of yours, can you? Looks as if they weren't planning to wait +for us." + +It was a gruesome passage, that last hundred yards. The sharks were +hardly as thick as Allen's picturesque hyperbole might have led one to +believe, but there were undoubtedly more than a score of triangular +dorsals slashing about in swift circles. But the sharks, for the most +part, gave us a good berth. It was the things that _didn't_ get out of +the way that came near to flooring me at the last--black, bloated +bodies, floating face down, like logs awash, till the canoe struck them, +then to roll shudderingly over and sweep you with the sightless gaze of +their wide, staring eyes as you fended with the paddle. Rona, her +flashing glances running back and forth over the schooner (following +Bell, who appeared to be lending a hand now and then on sheet or +halyard), seemed not to see the floating horrors around us. Allen's +steely eyes met the corpses stare for stare, and looked them down. But +upon me the horrors which passed the others by descended with full +force. How I kept going is more than I can guess. But I did it. At last +the loom of the _Cora's_ blistered starboard quarter cut off the seaward +view, and I steadied the dugout in close to the upper line of her +weed-foul copper sheathing. + +Apparently no notice whatever had been taken of us up to this time. +Short-handed as he was, Bell was doubtless too busy to keep a lookout, +while to the few niggers watching us through the wire the sight of a +dugout carrying "two fella white marsters and one fella Mary" was of +indifferent interest. All they cared about was getting away from the +Death Ship, and they didn't need to be told that this "pickaninny boat" +hadn't come to help forward their desires in that direction. Besides, +the guard walking up and down behind them with a Lee-Enfield over his +black shoulder had undoubtedly given them to understand that the first +one to start over the side would be shot. + +It must have been the guard who reported us finally. Burning with +impatience, Rona was just prodding up Allen and ordering him to clamber +aboard and tell "Mistah Bell" she wanted to speak to him, when I heard +the shout of "'Vast heavin'!" ring out, and presently a familiar tousled +head was poked over the top of the barbed wire. (I should explain, +perhaps, that three or four strands of "nigger wire" are run all the way +round the rail of every labour-recruiting ship. This is done with a +double purpose--to make it difficult for the blacks aboard to bolt, +should the spirit move them, and to serve as a partial protection while +at anchor against the always imminent attacks of the treacherous shore +natives.) + +There was a look in Bell's face I had never seen there before. The old +familiar furrows of dissipation showed deep around the mouth, but if he +had been drinking heavily, there was nothing to indicate it. What struck +me at once was his air of determination--I might almost say exaltation. +His head was held high, his shoulders were thrown back, and he might +have been treading the deck of a battle-ship as he swung up to the rail. +Everything about him betokened the man who has taken a great resolve, +and means to see it through if it kills him. + +Although I had heard no word of it up to that moment, I understood at +once that Bell had taken command of the schooner, that he was going to +try to sail her to some port where the plague-stricken blacks could be +given medical attention and kept under control. It was like Bell to take +on a job like that, I said to myself; but he would do it as a matter of +course. It would never occur to him that there was any alternative, just +as with an order in the Navy. There must be something more to account +for that air of high resolve.... I couldn't help thinking that, and I +was right. He let out what it was shortly. + +"It's right nice of you to come off to say good-bye, honey--and of you, +too, Whitney," Bell called down genially; "but, as we'ah not quite what +you'd call fixed fo' cawlahs, you'd bettah do it from wheah you a'. You, +Mistah Allen, if you have fin'ly made up youah mind in the mattah of +signin' up for the voyage, I reckon we can find accommodation fo' you. +But fust, let me say that if you've got any mo' of that dope you put in +my whisky stowed about youah puson, you'd best scuppah it befo' you +climb abo'd. I doan quite twig what you did it fo', unless it was to +dodge out of goin' yo'self, afta you had promised to help me see the job +through. But now, seein' you've come off of youah own free will, I +reckon I can fo'get that lil' slip, providin' it ain't repeated." + +Although Rona could hardly have known the exact meaning of "free will," +she caught the drift of Bell's remarks readily enough. "This rotten +boundah" (bounder was the worst name she knew to call a man in "pure" +English) "not come himself," the girl cut in shrilly, speaking for the +first time. "I fetch him. See!" and she threw back the folds of the +peacock shawl to reveal the bright wavy blade of her little _kris_ +boring into the hollow between Allen's right shoulder-blade and the +corded column of his sinewy neck. + +"From the reef I see you an' this fella 'Slan''" (Allen's shoulder +quivered under her designative prod) "go off to schoonah in boat," Rona +went on, avoiding as well as she could in her excitement the jargons she +knew Bell disliked so much. "Bime-by I see 'Slan'' come back--you stop +schoonah. When I go home I smell'em _kor-klee_. You no sabe _kor-klee_, +Bel-la. I sabe him too much long time. I smell _kor-klee_ in one +glass--not in othah. Pu-retty soon this boundah 'Slan'' come house. He +say: 'Bel-la go off in schoonah. Now I stop with you all time!' Then I +sabe what for _kor-klee_ veh-ry queeck. So I katch'em this fella by neck +an' fetch'm off schoonah. I say myself: 'If Bel-la dead, I keel this +boundah; if Bel-la not dead, _he_ keel him.' Heah he is, Bel-la--you fix +him pu-lenty. Then we go home-side." + +"So that's what upset the appl'-ca't?" There was nothing of the wrath of +the jealous male in Bell's deep, chesty laugh. "Well, I'm not blamin' +Mistah Allen fo' fallin' in love with you, honey. No propah man could +quite help doin' that, as I see it. Just the same, I can't quite approve +of his way of goin' about it, no' the occasion he took fo' it, eethah. +So you brought him off fo' me to execute, honey. That's right rich. +Youah a brick, you shuah a'. But I won't be killin' him, honey--no, +hahdly that. I'm just goin' to sign him on as Fust Mate of the _Cora +Andrews_, just as he 'lowed he do at the beginnin'. Of co'se I won't be +goin' home with you, honey. Doan you see I'm in command of this heah +ship?" + +A sudden shiver shook Rona's tense frame at those last words. Half +rising, she started to speak, but Bell cut her short with lifted hand +and went on himself. + +"Mistah Allen," he said, addressing himself now to the huddled figure in +the bottom of the canoe; "I said I was goin' to sign you on an' take you +with me. Let me qualify those wuds just a trifle. I'll pumit you to go +if you'll agree in advance to my tums. I might explain that theah's two +dif'rent views in the mattah of the best way of avoidin' catchin' the +pleg. One is, that you must keep strictly soba--straight teetotal; the +otha--diametrically opposed to the fust--is that you must keep dead +drunk--pif'ucated. Now I reckon that it's goin' to take at least one +white man to sail this hookah all the way to Australyuh; that is to say, +at least one white man must steah cleah of the pleg fo' the entahprise +to be crowned with success. But as theah ain't no suah data as to which +is the safe an' sutin way to 'complish this, I figa theah's nothin' else +to do but sta't with two white men, and let one of 'em try the fust +purscripshun an' the otha the second. + +"Now (tho' I must admit it's a bit high-handed on my pa't) I've already +picked the one I'm goin' to take; so, if you elect to sign on, Mistah +Allen, you'll have to take the otha. Theah's a dozen cases of whisky +abo'd--not Jawny Wakah, to be suah, but still fayah to middlin' cawn +jooce--an' I had to toss off a tumblah o' two of it as an antidote fo' +that dream-provokin' dope you wished onto me. But"--Bell's head was up +and his shoulders back again--"_that's the last_." His square jaw +snapped shut on the words like a sprung wolf-trap. Now I understood. +_That_ was his Great Resolve. + +Bell paused, and in the waiting silence I became aware for the first +time of the low rumble of groaning from the bowels of the ship. + +"So you'll see, Mistah Allen"--the corners of his mouth relaxed into a +smile as Bell resumed--"that since the Skippah's plumped to try the +'soba man' preventative, theah's nothin' left for the Mate to do but to +fight off the pleg by the 'drunk man' method. Theah'll only be two of +us, you see, an' it's theahfo' up to us to hedge ouah bets an' play +safe. But you won't be havin' to go if you ain't hankerin' after it. I'm +not (in spite of what the way you've been 'shanghaied' by--by Miss Rona +might lead you to think) runnin' a press-gang. It's entiahly up to you +as to whethah o' not you want to sail as the drunken Mate of the soba +Skippah of a black-birdah full of pleg-rotten niggahs. You see, Mistah +Allen"--the whimsical grin broadened--"you see I'm not tryin' to luah +you on by paintin' the picture any brightah than it is. 'Drunk Mate of a +soba Skippah'--do you get that?" + +Allen made no reply, that is, not directly. Raising his hand to fend the +expected prod from Rona, he wriggled halfway round and started to speak +to me, where, in the stern, I still paddled the canoe gently against the +turning tide and held it close alongside the schooner. For an instant I +was puzzled with the look on the side-face he presented, but almost at +once saw the reason for it. For the first time in my recollection the +thin upper lip was uncurled by its mocking smile. By that, I thought I +could gauge something of the extent of his slip-up. Yet--if I could have +read the man's mind--I would have known that it was something even +deeper than the wreck of personal hopes that had sobered "Slant" Allen. +What it was I learned later. + +"Whitney," he began, the words coming huskily from the dryness of his +throat; "I don't dope a man's chances for finishing inside the distance +flag in this little Handicap of Captain Bell's as better than a hundred +to one. That's long odds to be on the short end of when a man's life is +his stake. I don't give a damn about my life. Anyone will tell you that. +I've thrown it into the pool on worse than a hundred-to-one shot a good +many times before this. But--well, I'd rather appreciate it if--if you +could see fit to make a point of not telling my friends on the beach +that--that I had any help in--in volunteering--volunteering to lend +Captain Bell a hand in getting this hooker on her way." + +Rona, sensing that her responsibilities, so far as Allen was concerned, +were at an end, raised the _kris_ from his neck and thrust it into the +knot of her _sulu_. The Australian lifted himself lightly to his feet +and looked Bell straight between the eyes. "Lead me to your whisky," he +said in a steadied voice.... "By Gawd, I need it!" + +Poising an instant on the middle of a forward thwart of the canoe, he +sprang to the rail, clambered smartly to the top strand of the barbed +wire, and swung lightly down to the deck on the main backstay. + +It was at this juncture that I went through the feeble motions of trying +to act the part of a man myself. I pointed out to Bell that I had +knocked about on yachts a good deal, and, while I couldn't claim to be +much of a hand with niggers, was probably as good a navigator as Allen +was. I also said something about three men standing a better chance than +two of pulling off the job, and even added, half jocularly, that I was +about ready to go to Australia anyway, as I had had word that an +exhibition of my pictures was due to open in Sydney in a fortnight. I +only hope my words didn't sound as hollow to Bell as they did to me--for +they were the last ones I was ever to speak to him. + +Bell's gentlemanliness--nay, rather, his gentleness--came home to me +more in what he refrained from saying in his reply than in what he said. +He did _not_ say that he had no absinthe aboard, and that, as a +consequence, I would be only more useless and undependable than if he +had. He did _not_ say that his hands would be full enough looking after +crazy niggers without having a crazy white man to keep an eye on. He +even refrained from recalling to my mind a story I had told him of a +French official in New Caledonia whose absinthe supply had run out while +he was at an isolated post, and who, unable to stand the deprivation to +the end of the three-days' run in to Noumea in a trading cutter, had +taken a header over the side almost in sight of port--and relief. + +All he _did_ say was: "Nonsense, ol' man.... Quite out of the +question.... Nothin' doin'." Then, as though to soften the curtness of +his refusal: "'Twouldn't be propa, Whitney, to set a man that can slap +colour on canvas like you can to herdin' sick niggas. Besides, I'm +countin' on you to stick 'roun' Kai an' be a sort o' fatha an' motha' to +Rona while I'm gone. Youah the only man on the island I'd ca'ah to trust +with that job." + +There was nothing more to be said after that, I told myself; nothing +more to be done. I gave up limply and relapsed into wondering how long +it would take me to paddle Rona ashore and traverse the quarter of a +mile of coral clinkers between the place where she would land and the +long green bottle cooling in its breeze-swept swing beneath my coco leaf +jalousies. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + RONA COMES ABOARD + + +Well, I still think I was right on the score of the futility of further +words. Nothing more that I could have _said_ would have changed the +situation; but was there nothing more that I could have _done_? Rona +answered that question, so far as she herself was concerned, then and +there, though hardly in a way that I had the wit or the will to profit +by. + +Bell's answer to the girl's anxious appeal that she be allowed to join +him had been no less brusque and decided than that he had made to mine. +"Sorry, honey. No 'commodations fo' ladies this voyage. You wun't +intended to nu'se niggas, anyhow. Can't be done, honey." Then, to me: +"Time to be shovin' off now, Whitney. Tide's already on the tu'n. Right +sorry to have to hurry you-all this way." Not a word of farewell.... +Navy training would not down. + +"Bel-la, leesten to me!" There was more threat than entreaty in Rona's +voice now. Beyond doubt, he had never crossed her before. That she was +hurt and angry showed in every line of her tense figure, as she balanced +precariously with her left foot on the outrigger and her right on the +port weatherboard. "Bel-la, by crackee, I say I go with you! If you let +me come on schoona, all good. If you say no, by crackee, I--I sweem! I +sweem afta you. You know I good sweema, Bel-la." + +Swim! I knew the girl well enough to know it was not a bluff, and Bell +must have known even better. I had heard him speak many a time of her +absolute lack of fear. Also, although at that moment his imagination was +not quickened (as mine was) by the drunken roll a black cadaver under +the counter gave as a questing nose pushed into it from below, he must +have known what shrift a swimmer would have in those shark-infested +waters. + +Bell's mouth twitched at her words (I could just see his head and +shoulders where he conned ship with a foot on the starboard rail and a +hand in the shrouds of the mainmast), but he made no reply. Doubtless he +counted on my doing what I could to fish her out before anything +happened. Sweeping his eye fore and aft, he noted how the turning tide +had swung the schooner so that she headed directly away from the +passage, with the fluky puffs of the freshening trade wind coming over +her port quarter. Then, cautioning the men standing by at the fore and +main sheets to "take in sma't" as she gathered way, he bellowed the +order to "Heave away!" + +The ululant surge of the _beche-de-mer_ anchor chantey floated aft as +the blacks resumed their rhythmic tramp around the capstan. + + "_What name you b'longa? + What name you b'longa? + You Mary come catch'm ride. + What name you b'longa? + Come hear my songa-- + I take you to Sydney-side._" + +I have often wondered if the frank invitation in the swinging lines +might not have been the inspiration of Rona's astonishing action. + +The obligato of the incoming chain grinding through the hawse-pipe had +accompanied the chantey for only a stave or two, when Allen's clear, +ringing voice (he had not needed to be told where a mate belonged when a +ship was getting under way) announced from the forecastle: "Anchor +broken out, sir!" + +"Walk lively! Get catted 'fore she hits the passage!" Bell roared back, +anxious lest the great length of chain still out would make trouble +where the lagoon shoaled at its seaward entrance. A moment later he came +aft and relieved the man at the wheel, ordering the latter to stand by +to keep the mainsheet from fouling the nigger wire. It was the gigantic +Malay, Ranga-Ro, bulking mightily against the purpling eastern twilight +sky, who responded with a deep-rumbling "Ay, ay, su!" and sprang to the +starboard rail to clear the sagging lines running back from the +unstable-minded main boom. Then the amazing thing befell. + +As the schooner gathered way and began gliding ahead under the impulse +of the half-filled mainsail, Rona had crouched as though for a spring at +the towing whaleboat. The painter of the latter, however, made fast on +the port side of the taffrail, brought the yawning double-ender too far +away for anything but a creature with wings to bridge the gap. Seeing it +was impossible to jump to the whaleboat, she straightened up again, +swaying undulantly as the dugout bobbed about in the gently heaving wake +of the schooner. + +"Bel-la, I come!" There was more of anger than despair in that +steel-clear cry; more indignation than resignation in the hair-trigger +poise of the reed-slender figure. The instant that she hesitated on the +chance that this final threat might soften Bell's resolve was all that +prevented what at best could not have been other than a nasty mess for +the both of us. There was no possible chance for me to intercept her +before she jumped, and, once in the water, I knew she was quite equal to +upsetting the canoe rather than be dragged back into it. As for help +from the schooner--Bell had determined upon his course, and his eyes, +like his mind, were directed ahead, not astern. + +It was Ranga-Ro (deftly fending the slack of the mainsheet from the +nigger wire), not Bell, who turned at the sound of Rona's cry. Whether +or not he had glimpsed her during the previous ten minutes, I am not +sure; but for the girl (whose eyes had been on Bell from first to last), +I was certain that the big Malay had not impinged upon her vision +before. Recognition of his racial characteristics must have been +instantaneous. They were written for even an ethnic novice to read in +the giant's straight black hair, high cheek bones, wide mouth, with its +betel nut-stained teeth, and the light golden yellow skin clothing the +monstrously muscled limbs. The peculiar twist of the loosely-looped +_sarong_ and a wisp of rolled leaf behind an ear would have located him +even more definitely; but to Rona the fact that there was an indubitable +Malay staring into her eyes from the nearest rail of the receding +schooner, made the incidental of his being a Moluccan--a Spice Island +man--of little moment. She was used to handling big golden-yellow +men.... They had proved a deal more manageable than a certain white man +she could mention. + +I heard, without understanding, the swift run of her tripplingly-tongued +Malay, and only the sibilant hiss of "_Lekas! Lekas!_" at the end told +me that what she had ordered done was to be done "quickly! quickly!" Her +next order--to me--was no less insistent. "Paddl' catch'n schoona, +Whit-nee! Paddl' lak hell!" + +The girl's imperious mood brooked no delay. My work was cut out clear +for me, and, everything considered, I am not at all sure that the yellow +man--on the score of zeal, at least--outdid the white man in carrying +out the orders he had received. Slipping back to the stern to even up +the down-by-the-head trim Rona's presence in the bow gave the cranky +dugout, I plied the stubby paddle with all the strength and skill at my +command. The crazy craft rode higher now with Allen out of it, but even +so the speed with which I drove it threw a wave inches above the hole in +the crumbling bow. The up-curling water poured through in a steady +stream. My race, I saw, was against that rising flood in the bottom of +the canoe quite as much as against the schooner. + +There were only eight or ten yards to make up on the still slowly moving +_Cora_, and, barring swamping or a collision with a shark or a floating +nigger, I felt that I could do it easily. But what to do when we had +caught her up? Ah, there was where the yellow man was to come in. Ranga +was just as busily carrying out his orders as was I. "Clear away the +nigger wire and stand by to pick me up," had plainly been the drift of +that swift stream of Malay Rona had directed at him. Superbly disdainful +of the sharp barbs that were slashing his bare palms to ribbons, he +forced the whole savage entanglement down to the deck with no more +apparent effort than a child would have used in collapsing a +string-strung "cat's-cradle." Rove through steel stanchions set at close +intervals along the rail, the wire could not be torn entirely clear. So +the direct and simple-minded Ranga did the next best thing--gave a +mighty heave and brought three or four of the nearest stanchions down to +the deck in the tangle of wire they had supported. + +An order from Bell at this juncture would probably have stopped this +wholesale destruction of his protective entanglement; or perhaps I +should say _possibly_ rather than probably. One cannot be sure just how +strong a force Rona had lashed into action. It has since occurred to me +that the man must have been gripped with something very closely akin to +the madness of _amok_ to handle that wire with his naked hands as he +did. It may be that the only one from whom he would have brooked +interference was the one who had fired that savage train of +energy--Rona. These points were not to be put to the test, however. From +first to last Bell--although, from the wrecking of the wire almost under +his very eyes, he must have known what was going on--never looked back. + +What with the settling of the half-swamped canoe and the accelerating +speed of the schooner, it was touch-and-go at the end. I had gained by +feet at first; then by inches; and finally, with but a couple of yards +more needed to bring the bow up even with the schooner's counter, I +realized that I was no better than holding my own. It was the last ounce +of reserve in my aching frame that I called upon for that final spurt. +Rona must have sensed that I was going my limit, for she said no word +... only crouched, tense as a waiting wild-cat, for the moment of her +spring. + +For the first few seconds the gap closed quickly as the canoe gathered +increased headway from the impulse of my wildly driven paddle; then more +slowly and more slowly, until, again, I was no better than holding even. +Another foot, and the jump would be safe. Bending low to make the most +of my expiring strength, my eyes wandered from the goal for an instant. +It was a shuddering gasp of consternation from the bow that brought them +back again. The swooning mainsail, filled by the freshening puffs, was +beginning to make its pull felt in earnest. The gap had widened. Instead +of gaining a foot I had lost two. That dished me completely. "No good, +Rona--I'm--all in," I groaned, and slid limply down into the bottom of +the canoe, where the water now lapped level with the thwarts. + +Half fainting though I was, the picture of that super-simian spring of +Rona's is indelibly etched upon my memory. Save for that one quick gasp, +she made no sound. The jump was an impossible one ... sheerly +impossible. And yet-- Only a swift gathering of muscles--very like the +final quivering hunch of an ape that leaps from tree to tree--heralded +action. Then, with a back-kick that forced the already half-submerged +bow right under, she flashed up to her full height and launched her body +into the air. + +It was a good jump,--a wonderful one, indeed, considering the unstable +take-off--but of course she missed the rail--and by feet. That didn't +surprise me.... I had seen it was inevitable. But what I had _not_ +reckoned upon was the astonishing length of Ranga's mighty left arm. +Standing by with a bight of the mainsheet gripped in his right hand to +keep from overbalancing, he had sprung to the top of the rail as Rona +jumped, leaning out at all of an angle of forty-five degrees, probably +more. It was into the solidly pliant muscles of his great corded left +wrist, extended to the full reach of the arm, that Rona clawed with the +last half inch of her out-stretched fingers--clawed and _held_. I say +_clawed into_, not clutched or seized. The girl's hold on Ranga's wrist +was not that of an acrobat grabbing over the bar for which he has jumped +(her leap was short by an inch at least of giving her a chance to do +that), but rather that of a flung cat clawing into the limb or the trunk +of a tree. With less strength of fingers or length of nails her hands +would merely have brushed the outstretched arm and missed a hold. + +Under the impact of that flying hundred and twenty pounds (in spite of +her slenderness, Rona must have weighed quite that) of bone and muscle, +striking, as it did, just where the greatest leverage would be exerted, +Ranga was all but swung round and thrown from his footing. The +hastily-seized mainsheet was hardly a scientifically-run guy for the +leaning tower of his stressed frame, nor did the wreck of the barbed +wire entanglement writhing over the rail offer the solidest of +foundations. Back and forth he swayed, like the half unstepped mast of a +grounded sloop; then steadied, quiveringly, up to his original tense +slant. + +The acrobatic miracle wrought by Ranga in swinging Rona's precariously +hanging form inboard was the most perfect feat of strength and balance I +ever saw, or ever expect to see. It looked as sheerly impossible as the +jump had looked--and was accomplished scarcely less quickly. The drawing +up of the extended left arm (what a marvellous rippling and bunching of +golden muscles that was!) brought the girl's pendant form close in +against the corrugated bulge of the giant's chest, reducing the terrific +leverage by a good half. A similar doubling up of the right, with a +sudden tug on the mainsheet at the end of it, did the rest. For an +instant the great rangy rack of corded muscles balanced erect in the +midst of the wire-tangle festooned over the rail; then jumped lightly +down beyond and deposited its burden on the deck. + +Hardly ten seconds could have elapsed from the instant of Rona's jump to +the one in which Ranga plumped her down beside Bell at the wheel. The +gap between the canoe and the schooner had widened to hardly twenty +yards. I could see both the Malay and the girl quite distinctly as, with +the latter still looped in the crook of his fingernail-torn left arm, he +poised for a moment on the rail. Neither appeared to have turned a hair. +Neither seemed in the least flustered ... might have been in the habit +of doing that sort of thing every day for all the excitement they showed +about it. + +The first thing Ranga did, as the dropped mainsheet gave him a free +hand, was to reach to the knot of his _sarong_ and satisfy himself that +the little bamboo flute tucked in there had ridden out the storm. And +Rona--her first move was to gather up and stow an amber-streaming corner +of the peacock shawl, which was threatening to catch in an uprearing +strand of the nigger wire. Those two funny little incidentals complete +my recollections of that breathless quarter-minute. Whether Rona, or +Bell, or anyone else on the schooner waved good-bye in my direction I do +not recall. Ranga was taking in the slack of the mainsheet when I looked +again, and Bell, peering up at the flapping headsails, was grinding away +at the wheel. Two or three shots rang out following a commotion +forward--probably fired to check a fresh up-surge of the blacks from +below. + +As Bell brought her round in a wide circle, the _Cora's_ sails were +flattened in and she began to beat up toward the entrance of the passage +in a series of short tacks. As she headed in past the quay, I heard a +burst of cheers roll up from a knot of humanity blurring the beach in +front of Jackson's. It was just a big, full-throated general whoop, that +first one, but it was quickly followed by a number of other volleys of +"huroars" that seemed to carry suggestions of control and leadership. +The last of these was a hearty "three-times-three," topped off with a +"tiger." "Cheering the parting heroes by name," I muttered to myself, +and wondered who that last rousing "tiger" was meant to speed. I was +still speculating when the sharp whish of a heeling dorsal, as a +sheering shark avoided the submerged outrigger by a hair, awakened me to +a rude realization of the fact that the swift tropic night had all but +fallen and that I was drifting out with the tide in a holed and barely +floating dugout. + +Of all the ebbings of the tide of courage that my sorrily spent life had +known, and had still to know, those next few minutes--with the _Cora_ +dissolving into the swimming dusk as she beat out through the passage, +the weirdly green wakes of the sharks lacing the oily-black water with +welts of phosphorescence as they assembled for their ghastly banquet, +and my swamped canoe teetering in balance between positive and negative +buoyancy--registered low-water mark. I have never heard of a despairing +absinthe slave trying to break his bonds at the end of the day. It is +invariably at the end of the night that he makes his break for +liberty--at the beginning of the day he has not the courage to face. But +it was the shame of the yellow in me, rather than the green, that held +empire now. Rona had brooked no refusal of her demand to be taken on the +_Cora_. Why had I? She had been ready to swim for it. Why should not I? +Surely the sea, better than anything else, would wash that yellow stain +from my honour and leave it white at the last. I didn't even have to +screw my nerve up to the point of jumping over. Listing heavily to +starboard as the half-capsized dugout was, one little inch edged to the +right, and not even the leverage of the outrigger could keep it from +overturning. Just the inclination of my shoulders would do the trick.... +I would not even have to take the initiative to the extent of edging +along. Surely-- + +With a quick gasp, I slid sharply to one side--but it was to the +left--the outrigger side. The great starshaped welter of green +luminescence, where a half-dozen wallowing man-eaters nuzzled into a +bobbing witch-fire-streaked shape of unreflecting opacity, proved too +much for my last unbroken filament of nerve--all that I needed to make +my honour white. I had always dreaded sharks, and it was my horror of +them now that checked the worthiest impulse that had stirred me that +day. The momentarily eclipsed image of the cooling green bottle took +shape again before my eyes, and, after that, there was nothing to do but +make the best fight I could to reach it. + +Proceeding with infinite caution to avoid the upset which I now feared +above everything in the world, I crawled forward along the outrigger +side and stopped the hole in the bow with my folded drill jacket, as a +necessary preliminary to beginning to bail out with my waterproof +sun-helmet. But before I turned to on what could have hardly proved +other than a hopeless task, the sound of oars and voices reached my +ears, and presently the bow of a hard-pulled whaleboat came pushing up +out of the darkness. It was old Jackson whose strong arm reached out and +dragged me in over the gunwale. When they got back their breaths lost in +cheering the departing schooner, he explained, after depositing my limp +form in the stern sheets, Doc Wyndham bawled over to them from +"Quarantine" that some cove had been left behind in a foundered canoe. +Jackson himself reckoned that the Doc was beginning to go off his nut +and see things; but as several of the others seemed to have hazy +recollections of something of the same kind, it was thought best to put +off and investigate. + +"'Ow'd you 'appen to miss c'nections?" Jackson asked sympathetically. "I +spotted you paddlin' the canoe off, an' we was so sure the Skipper 'ad +signed you on that we give a speshul w'oop in your 'onour. 'W'at's the +matter wiv W'itney?' I bellered ('member the night you learned us that +one?--time the looted fizz from the _Levuka_ was on tap); an' the boys +cum back wiv: ''E's all right!--you bet!--Ev'ry time!'" + +"That wasn't the big 'three-times-three' at the end, was it, Jack?" I +asked, my face burning with shame at the thought. + +"Well, no; 'ardly that un," was the half-apologetic reply. "That +ripsnorter was in 'onour uv 'Slant' Allen. Long time pal uv all uv us, +'e is. Slash-bangin' finisher, li'l ol' 'Slant.'... Trust 'im allus to +be on 'and w'en they're liftin' 'ell's 'atches." + +I knew then that I wasn't going to be tumbling over myself to tell +"Slant's" friends on the beach that his volunteering to go with the +_Cora_ had been just a shade less voluntary than they reckoned. _He_ had +not pulled up dead at his first hurdle as I had, anyhow. No, until I +knew more of what had transpired earlier in the day, I was not going to +give the man away; and not to his old friends in any case. I would do at +least that much homage to his nerve. + +Seeing how dead beat I was, Jackson waved back the crowd at the quay and +headed me straight for home. He knew what I needed, and I was as +grateful for the bluff old outlaw's unspoken sympathy as I was for the +help of his sustaining arm. With rare delicacy, he avoided being a +witness to my assault on the green bottle by leaving me at the door. +Like all the rest of those rough, red-blooded roysterers of Kai, Jackson +felt that habitual absinthe drinking was degenerate, almost immoral.... +All right for a "Froggy," of course, but not for a proper white man.... +A thing that a real self-respecting beach-comber would never allow +himself to be guilty of. The fact (which could not be concealed for +long) that I was known to be addicted to the habit had taken even more +living down than my painting, especially when they learned I was +straight Yankee and not a "_We-we_." + +I drank hungrily at first--gulping glass after glass of the cool green +liquid,--but stopped just as soon as I found my nerves were steadied and +before the first stage of "elevation" was entered upon. (A seasoned +drinker takes some time to reach the latter.) Unspeakably tired +physically, I dropped off to sleep almost as soon as the absinthe +relaxed the tension on my nerves. My rest was dreamless and +untroubled--or comparatively so. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + I LEAVE THE ISLAND + + +Rolling out of bed at the end of twelve straight hours of sleep, I found +the Trades blowing fresh and strong again, and the air--after the +soddenness of the past week--almost bracing. A plunge from the reef and +a piping hot breakfast of fried clams and duck eggs--my first solid food +in over thirty-six hours--bucked me up astonishingly. For almost the +first time since I came to the island, I was out before ten o'clock--and +well in hand, too. I had to be.... There was much that it was up to me +to learn--and perhaps to act upon. + +That which I most desired to get some line upon was what Allen had been +driving at in drugging Bell, or even, possibly, trying to poison him. +What was _kor-klee_? (of which Rona appeared to be so terrified), and +how did it act? were questions which I wanted especially to find the +answers to. Was it a drug with a delayed action, following a preliminary +stupefaction of comparative mildness? If so--no, there was nothing that +could be done for Bell in that case; but, as a friend of his, I might do +what I could to square the account later on. There was no lack of +confidence _that_ morning. The reaction (which had eluded me completely +the day before) was strong upon me, and I felt quite equal to any +situation that might arise. I still blushed with shame at the thought of +the contemptible figure I had cut from dawn to darkness of the day +previous, but I was ready to make such atonement as was humanly +possible. It was merely one of my "high" moods coming three or four +hours ahead of time. I could have slung my colours with telling effect +that morning, if there had been a chance for me to get at canvas. + +From one and another at Jackson's I gathered a fairly connected account +of what had happened during the hours I was away on the leeward side of +the island. The salient incidents of this I have already set down. None +of them knew much of anything about _kor-klee_, but all agreed that Doc +Wyndham would be sure to be an authority upon it. I dropped the subject +for the moment, as I did not care to be pressed for an explanation of +why I sought the information. The next day I slipped quietly over and +had a long-distance interview with the learned Wyndham. + +The Doc had buried the _Cora's_ recruiting agent the night the schooner +sailed, doing everything except the digging of the grave with his own +hands. He had then returned home and shut himself in for his ten days of +solitary quarantine. Solitary is hardly the word, though. Wyndham was +far from being alone. Unlike Bell, he was a "spree drinker" rather than +a speedy tippler. It was his habit (as he put it himself) to accumulate +aridity during five or six months of the most rigorous teetotalism, and +then blow up the dam and make the desert blossom like the rose under the +stimulus of a generous flood. The breaking up of the Monsoon and the +culmination of Doc Wyndham's biennial sprees were bracketed together in +the Islands' list of seasonal disturbances. + +The desert was hardly due for its wetting at this time, but Wyndham, +shaken by his unsuccessful fight to save the Agent's life, was loath to +face the ordeal of the confinement ahead of him without company. So (as +he explained after he had halted me a dozen paces from his door with a +revolver flourished from the window) he called in the only dead sure +plague-immune he knew--his old friend John Barleycorn--and raised the +floodgates. The last thing he had impressed upon his brain before +putting Barleycorn in charge was that he must rigidly confine his desert +reclamation project to his own wastes. On no account was he to leave his +own house, and, on no account, was anyone to be allowed to enter it. +"Strict quarantine's the word," he had repeated to himself many times +before he started drinking, and "Strict quarantine's the word" was the +greeting--and the warning--I heard when I stepped into the shadow of the +big breadfruit tree in front of his door. + +Solemn as an owl, Wyndham had been catching purple shrimps (or something +of the kind) with a butterfly net and putting them under his microscope +for examination. The big brass instrument was set upon a table pulled up +to the window, while the shrimps were being harvested from the bosky +depths of a patch of elephant-eared taro just outside. It was his +favourite hunting and fishing preserve, that taro patch, the Doc had +confided to me once, and the rarity and variety of the specimens +captured there were rather remarkable. I don't remember many of them, +but a sea-cow and a sabre-tooth tiger were among the commonest he had +made slides of. Everything went under the microscope, of course. His +captures were small in size during the first few days, starting with +mere animalculae, but bulked steadily bigger as the desert blossomed to +a jungle. It required a microscope with a great latitude of adjustment +to handle such a wide range of subjects--but his was a most excellent +instrument ... most excellent. Thus the Doc. + +Pretending to ignore my approach completely, Wyndham continued squinting +through the eye-piece of his microscope until I crunched over the +dead-line he had established. Then he flourished the revolver, barked +out his quarantine formula, and asked what I wanted. "When I replied +that I had come to inquire respecting the effects of a drug called +_kor-klee_, his manner changed instantly. By some queer psychological +process quite beyond me to fathom, he started at once speaking French, +or rather what he thought was French. It was a weird jargon he had +picked up in the Marquesas, where he had spent a year in research work +when he first came to the Islands, and where (it was said) only his +passion for collecting pearls--other people's--had prevented his winning +to international fame for his all-but-successful efforts to isolate the +bacteria responsible for the dread _fe-fe_ or _elephantiasis_. + +"_Kor-klee--mais oui, mon ami. Je comprend him fella kor-klee too much. +Parfaitement. C'est la liqueur essential de la ficus--ficus--nom d'un +chien--ficus what-dyucalum. C'est la aphrodisique le plus exquite, le +plus fort, en tout le monde. Prenez vous comme ca--whouf!_"--and he made +a great pretence of inhaling the contents of his shrimp net to show how +the drug was administered for that particular purpose. + +"_Encore--quand--quand eat'm like kai-kai!_" he floundered on learnedly; +"_quand eat'm kor-klee il fait--mak'm mort--dead--tres vite_." + +Here he interrupted himself to ask for which purpose it was I intended +to use the stuff. + +"Neither," I denied stoutly. "I was merely asking out of curiosity." + +"_Parle that talkee a la marines_," he scoffed. "_Le meme chose talkee +parle_ 'Slant' Allen. _Je voudrais connoce ou--ou in hell you fella +catch'm kor-klee._ I'd like to get my fist on some of the blooming +elixir myself," he trailed off into English. + +Save for that one lapse, Wyndham, in spite of my reiterated appeals +that he speak straight English, rattled on in his impossible +Franco-_beche-de-mer_ from first to last. That which I have tried to +render does it scant justice. Most of it was quite unintelligible. At +the end of a rather trying half-hour (though it would have been amusing +enough had I been less anxious for information that might throw light on +the mystery I had set myself to unravel), about all that I had been able +to gather was that _kor-klee_ was the name given in the Dutch Indies to +several preparations made from the latex of the wild fig of New Guinea. +A crude infusion of it was employed by the Papuans in stupefying fish in +their rivers. More elaborated extracts were distilled for their narcotic +and other properties. One of these, vapourized and inhaled, was much +prized by the Rajahs of Malaysia as a quickener of the languid pulse, a +restorer of youth. Another--the most powerful extract of all--was a +deadly poison--very neat and incisive in its action. + +I also understood Wyndham to say that the use of the drug in any form +acted as a great exciter of the cravings for alcohol and narcotics on +the part of those addicted to these habits. "If that's the case," I said +to myself as I turned home, "God pity poor old Bell's teetotal +resolutions! It would have been hard enough without anything further in +the way of a 'thust aggravata.' I'm afraid he'll be having to exchange +roles with 'Slant' after all--to let the latter be the 'soba Mate of a +drunken Skippa.'" Now that I had a chance to think about it, I didn't +have any great faith in Bell's ability to refrain from drink for any +length of time--certainly for not more than a day or two at the outside. +He'd probably see the thing through, I admitted, but not as a "soba +Skippa." + +Turning over all I had picked up at the end of a couple of days, I felt +that I could come pretty near to reconstructing in my mind those scenes +of the drama of which there had been no witnesses save the actors +themselves. Allen's infatuation for the girl had undoubtedly got the +better of him the instant the turn of events suggested a plan which +promised to give him undisputed possession of her. To this end he had +plotted to get Bell off on a voyage from which there was no more than a +negligible chance of his ever returning, while he himself remained +behind to enjoy the spoils. + +Considering that Allen's plan was evolved upon little more than a +moment's notice, there could be no question that it was laid with +consummate cleverness and carried out without a hitch--save, of course, +for that final fatal slip-up which undid all the rest. To make sure of +Bell and disarm his suspicions, Allen had assured the American that he +himself would also go on the _Cora_. That he had tried to poison Bell, I +had my doubts. I had not learned enough of how the drug acted to make my +speculations on that point of much use. At any rate, with Bell +unconscious on the schooner, it had clearly been the Australian's plan +to return to the beach and remain there until she sailed, at the turn of +the tide. That the _Cora_ should get under way at that time had already +been arranged between the unsuspecting Ranga and himself. The pretence +that he had missed the schooner while engaged in getting his own and +Bell's kits together would save his face with his friends on the beach. +This latter consideration, it appears, was something the rascal never +lost sight of. In the improbable event that Bell ever returned--but that +bridge need not be crossed until it was in sight. + +Allen's cropper at the last jump was directly due to his cool assumption +(natural enough, considering his success with South Sea ladies +generally) that the girl, once Bell was out of the way, would fall into +his lap like a ripe mango. That, and his long-curbed passion for her, +led him to rush in search of Rona the moment he landed from his first +visit to the schooner, and, missing her then, to return before the +_Cora_ had got her anchor up. The consequences of his finding her in on +this latter occasion I had seen something of myself. How that slip of a +girl got the drop on the most notorious bad man in the Islands I could +only conjecture. Probably, with Allen, it was the old story--prudence +going out of one door as passion entered at the other. I didn't reckon +that Rona had ever read the story of Delilah; yet I felt pretty +confident that the point of that little Joloano _kris_ had found its way +to the pulse of "Slant's" jugular some time after the girl's arm had +gone round his neck in what he thought--for a second or two at +least--was a warm embrace. Rona's uncanny faculty for getting away with +everything she went after--from having her peacock shawl dry-cleaned to +boarding a schooner which was all of "two jumps" beyond her reach--had +greatly impressed me. And well it might have.... + +Even allowing that Allen had not tried to poison Bell outright, the fact +remained that he had played the worst kind of a low-down trick on the +American in treacherously attempting to railroad the latter out of the +way and deprive the girl of his protection. That much was plain, and it +was dead against the shifty Australian. In "Slant's" favour was the game +manner in which he had stood the gaff at the last, when Bell left the +way wide open for him to return ashore without even going over the side +of the plague-infested schooner. He had not hesitated an instant in +staking his life in what he had very fairly characterized as the short +end of a hundred-to-one shot. There must be redeeming qualities in a man +who could do that, no matter how shot through with infamy his past +record had been. It occurred to me as just possible that Bell's +magnanimity had struck a responsive chord in Allen's sense of +sportsmanship--that the latter was going to play whatever remained of +that grim game on the square. If the _Cora_ was lost, or if Allen and +Bell and the girl all died of the plague (one or both of which +contingencies seemed practically inevitable), the whole slate would be +wiped clean anyhow. If not--if the _Cora_ won through with any of those +three surviving--some hint of what had transpired on the voyage would +certainly be obtainable at Townsville, or whatever port the schooner +succeeded in making. In any event, I told myself, it was up to me to get +on to Australia at the earliest possible moment. + +The fact that my Exhibition would be sure to have opened in Sydney by +the time I reached Australia, really had nothing to do with my decision. +In spite of the bluff I had tried to put over on Bell, I had had no +intention of leaving Kai for a number of months to come. Nor, even after +I began getting ready to go, did I attempt to ignore the fact that there +might be duties for me to carry out in Townsville, the performance of +which would be more likely than not to interfere seriously with my +freedom of action for a good deal longer than the art world of Sydney +would be inclined to pay homage to my marines. + +No, my coming show had nothing to do with my resolve to hurry south, +although, naturally, I fully intended to take it in if things shaped so +as to make it possible. Since my daubs had been making good with the +connoisseurs of Kai--men who knew at first hand the things I was trying +to paint,--I had little fear that the more sophisticated critics of +civilization would not fall for them. I hadn't any worry on that score. +I knew I had been doing good work. But--well, an artist who isn't +interested in the way his work will react on his fellow-beings is +lacking in a very important stimulus to success. + +Kai manifested its usual sympathetic interest in my preparations for +departure, but, with characteristic delicacy, asked no questions. Well +off the steamer routes, and with only the most infrequent comings and +goings of pearling and trading craft, the problem of reaching Australia +with any dispatch seemed, at first, a hopeless one. For a while it +looked like the best I could do would be to accept "Slim" Patton's +kindly offer to run me over in his pearling sloop to Thursday Island, +where I could count on getting a south-bound China-Australia liner +inside of a fortnight. As Patton was known to be in bad for several +little things at Thursday Island, his offer did more credit to his heart +than to his head, and I was a good deal relieved when Jackson figured +out a plan that promised to make it possible for me to reach my goal by +another route. After thumbing a greasy sheet of Burns, Phillip sailings +for the best part of an afternoon, the old outlaw suddenly announced he +had found reason to believe that, with luck, a cutter getting away from +Kai that night could intercept the Solomon-Australia packet at Samarai, +off the easternmost tip of New Guinea. To be sure that the thing was +done properly, he would take one of his own cutters and sail her +himself. As my impedimenta consisted of little beyond a few changes of +drills and ducks, my painting kit, and a case of absinthe, and as +Jackson used neither paint nor absinthe and wore a flowered _sulu_ in +place of ducks and drills, we had little difficulty in getting away on +schedule. + +Jackson's carefully tabulated calculations--you can do that kind of +thing in those latitudes when the southeast Trades are blowing steady +and you know your boat--were only wrong by an hour. That is to say, we +would have missed the _Utupua_ by something like that had we pushed +right in to Samarai. Old "Jack," however, sighting a bituminous smear +trailing off above the tufted tops of the coco palms that line the inner +passage, promptly shook out all his reefs, hauled up four or five +points, and headed away on a course calculated to converge with that of +the outgoing steamer a couple of miles to seaward. It was only after an +abrupt greening of the tourmaline depths of the passage we had been +threading suggested a sudden shoaling that it occurred to him to unroll +and study his chart. + +"Five 'undred fathom--three 'undred fifty fathom," he read laboriously +as his tarry forefinger cruised along the tiny rows of dots and figures +indicating soundings. "Three 'undred fathom--two 'undred fifty +fathom--_one_ bloody fathom! By Gawd, W'itney, we're 'igh an' dry +already! This bally chart says they's only one fathom uv water on this +kerblasted coral patch, an' the cutter draws two feet mor'n that." + +But he never luffed her, never altered her course a fraction of a point. +"More she 'eels the less she draws," he muttered philosophically, +sitting down on the weather rail of the cockpit and starting to whittle +at the end of a stick of tobacco with his clasp-knife. "Save a lot of +wig-waggin' if we do pile up," he continued presently, rolling the +shaved-off blackjack between his palms. "Ol' 'Choppy' Tancred never giv' +the go-by to even a nigger dugout he could len' a han' to." Then he +lighted his pipe, whoofed two or three whirling jets of blue smoke to +leeward as he brought it to a proper draw, and settled comfortably back +in puffing contentment. Ten minutes later he unrolled the chart again, +produced a greasy stub of pencil from the band of his _koui_-leaf hat, +and wrote with great care the letters "P.D." across the dotted expanse +where curving lines of figure "1s," like the graphic representation of +telegraph lines on a bird's-eye map, indicated six feet of water where +the eight-feet-draught cutter had just crossed without a bump. + +"As I figger it," Jackson observed drily, rolling up the chart and +tossing it down the companionway as a thing whose usefulness was +ended,--"as I figger it, a bloke's only manifestin' proper conserv'tism +w'en 'e marks as 'Position Doubtful' a reef that ain't tangibl' enuf to +stop 'im w'en 'e 'its it." Then, presently, between puffs, as he +stretched himself and sidled along to take the wheel as the cutter began +to close the slowing steamer: "Wonder 'oo the bally cove'll be 'oo bumps +a mis-charted reef w'en 'e thinks 'e's got four 'undred fathom uv brine +'tween his keel an' the bottom uv the Pacific." The notorious inaccuracy +of the South Sea charts is a continual source of amusement or +wrath--according to whether a misplaced shoal or passage has spelt +comedy or tragedy to him--for the man who sails their reef-beset waters. + +It was Captain Tancred himself who came tumbling down from the +_Utupua's_ bridge to greet me as I clambered up the Jacob's ladder +thrown over from the forecastle head. Hearing of him often before, this +was the first time I ever set eyes on one of the best-loved characters +in the South Pacific. He was a red-faced, blue-eyed, sandy-haired Scot, +with a heart as big as his fist, and as soft as his voice was rough. +Square himself as his own broad shoulders, and strictly law-abiding +personally, he was credited with an amiable weakness for befriending +every man who had run afoul of the statutes. I had heard them yarn by +the hour at Kai of the way he had smuggled this one out of Australia, +and that one into New Guinea; of how he had all but bumped South Head +while standing-off-and-on in a "Southerly Buster" one night, on the off +chance of picking up a jail-breaker, whose only claim upon Tancred had +been that the latter had once before performed a similar service for the +reprobate when he had forced his way out of the jug in Suva. Several of +the push at Jackson's claimed actually to owe their lives to the bluff +old Scot; many of them their liberty. "Choppy" Tancred--so called from +his sun-washed red-brown mutton-chop side whiskers--was the nearest +thing to a patron saint Kai ever had--that is, until the Rev. Horatio +Loveworth hove up on their skyline some years later and converted the +lot of them (just about) with the knuckles of his brawny fists. + +The last thing Jackson had said, as he steadied the ladder for me to +swarm up the _Utupua's_ side, was to the effect that I ought to consider +myself dead lucky to be stacking up with "Choppy" Tancred; "or, +leastways," he qualified, "you would be if you was in any kind uv a mess +'e could fish you out uv." + +"Don't give up hope, Jack," I chaffed back, clawing round a projecting +ventilator; "I may land in a mess yet." + +"Then don't be forgettin' ther'll allus be a refooge for the errin' on +the banks an' brays uv Kai Lagoon," he sang back, taking in the +mainsheet as the cutter came up to the wind; "an' that 'Choppy' +Tancred'll be the cove to give you a first leg-up on the way back +there." + +Except for his very evident disappointment over the fact that I +disclaimed any need of his help in getting ashore in Australia, Captain +Tancred seemed not in the least put out over being stopped and boarded +so high-handedly. He had carried many queer birds in his time, so that a +man eccentric enough to take a case of drinkables with him on the +_return_ trip from the Islands didn't worry him as much as it might have +some others. He was also kindly charitable about my "exclusiveness" of +evenings (when all normal beings expand and grow sociable at sea), and +even good-naturedly tolerant of my weakness for having breakfast in my +cabin. I made it up to him to the best of my ability in my "quickened" +hours of the afternoon, and we became good friends.... Really good +friends. I felt that I could count upon him in a pinch. + +The grounding of the company's Port Moresby steamer somewhere along the +Barrier Reef was responsible for the fact that the _Utupua_, this +voyage, had been ordered to pick up freight at both Cooktown and Cairns, +instead of proceeding direct to Townsville on her regular schedule. This +set her back two days, and brought us into the offing at Townsville +twenty-four hours after--instead of twenty-four hours before--a +sun-blistered, foul-smelling labour-recruiting schooner, with a dead +Captain and a score or more of dying niggers, was brought to anchor off +the Quarantine Station by the Mate, who, immediately the hook was let +go, collapsed on the deck and went to sleep. The empty hulk of the _Cora +Andrews_, swinging lazily to the turning tide, was one of the first +things to catch my eye as the _Utupua_ steamed in and tied up to her +buoy. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + A GRIM TALE OF THE SEA + + +I have often tried to figure just what effect on the succeeding train of +events my earlier arrival in Townsville might have had. I have never +come to any very definite conclusions in that connection. There were two +or three things that were pretty well bound to happen, and if they +hadn't come about one way, there is little doubt that they would have +done so in another. Had I been there when the _Cora_ arrived, it is +probable that I would have learned definitely at once (instead of +somewhat tardily) that Bell had _not_ died of the plague. Certainly, on +learning that fact, my impulse would have been to try to force Allen to +an immediate showdown--to insist on his proving that the dope he had put +in the American's whisky at Kai had not been the direct cause of the +latter's death. Such a showdown would have been impossible to bring +about at the time, however: for one reason, because Allen had been put +into quarantine immediately, and, for another, because, completely +played out by thirty-six hours at the wheel without relief, he had sunk +into a sleep from which he had not rallied for over two days. Similar +considerations would have prevented my seeing Rona. Besides being in +quarantine she was in a state of raving delirium, which would have made +it impossible for her to convey coherent information. Even Ranga, +unaffected in mind and body though he was, I would hardly have been +permitted to talk with when he landed, any more than I was two days +later. No, everything considered, I fail to see where my earlier arrival +would have made much difference in what happened. It must have been +slated anyhow, I think--just bound to come off however the incidentals +shaped. + +Still askance at what he rated as my temerity in making an open landing +in Townsville, Captain Tancred had somewhat reluctantly granted my +request for a boat to take me ashore as soon as the quarantine officials +were through with the ship. I couldn't, of course, go off in the +quarantine launch, but one of the doctors lingered a few minutes to tell +me what he knew of the _Cora_. Although her captain had died twenty-four +hours before the schooner anchored, his remains had not been buried at +sea. This, it appeared, had been largely due to the protests of some +sort of a Kanaka girl the Skipper had had with him. According to the +Bo'sun's statement (fine upstanding fellow that looked like some kind of +a Java man), she had gone plumb off her chump. Tried to knife the Mate +first, and then plumped down by the Skipper's remains and threatened to +stick the first man to touch it. The Mate, endeavouring to humour her, +had not insisted on the burial--a reprehensible weakness on his part.... +Common prudence demanded that the dead on a plague ship should be +scuppered as soon as the breath was out of their bodies. That is, with a +white man; with a nigger it did no harm to anticipate that event by an +hour or so--as long as you were sure the fellow was going to whiff out +anyway. + +The funny part of it was, though (the Doctor went on), that the Skipper +had not died of the plague at all. They had not, it was true, made any +post-mortem in the rush of things; but it was certain, nevertheless, +that his body had not displayed even the preliminary evidences of +infection--no swelling of the glands of the groin or under the arms. +Magnificent physical specimen the chap was, but plainly a man who had +punished an ocean of booze in his day. And yet--confound it all!--there +was no evidence that the fellow had drunk himself to death, either. Now +if it had been the Mate--_he_ was exuding alcohol from every +pore--absolutely reeking with it. Almost made a man drunk to breathe the +air down to leeward of him. Seemed to have been on one glorious spree +all the way from--somewhere up Solomon-way, he thought it was. Harried +the niggers like a fiend, according to the Bo'sun. Clubbed three or four +of them to death for not stepping lively enough to his orders. Lucky +thing the Skipper had scuppered all but one of the guns the first day +out. But not all the booze he had soaked up had effected the nerve of +the Mate. Kept his head and his legs to the last, finishing up with a +straight twenty-four-hour trick at the wheel. Said none of the crew knew +the Barrier Reef as well as he did. Had one nigger holding a parasol +over him, another playing a concertina, another waiting handy with a +bottle of whisky, and a fourth standing by to block any rushes from the +Kanaka girl with her knife. Funny thing it never occurred to him to have +her disarmed and tied up, or shut up. Grabbed the bottle of whisky and +started to brain the Bo'sun with it every time the latter tried to push +in and relieve him at the wheel. + +A chap of terrible determination and iron nerves, that Mate was, +observed the Doctor. But no wonder.... Think who he was! Allen! The +Honourable Hartley Allen! The great Allen! Son of old Sir Jim Allen! +Melbourne Cup winner! Best horseman in all Australia! Crooked as they +make 'em--but how he could ride! Sent off to the Islands four or five +years back for raising some sort of hell. His old Ticket-of-Leave had +given him away when they came to strip him for a bath. No possible +mistake about it. One of the doctors at the Quarantine Station had set a +broken collar-bone for him once after he had fallen in a steeplechase at +Coolgardie. Found the marks of the old compound fracture still humping +up on the clavicle--the left one.... + +It was not without difficulty that I brought the excited young medico +round to speaking of Bell again. The astounding fact that he himself, +with his own hands, had actually helped to put the great and only +Hartley Allen to bed, was proving almost too much for him. It was +certainly not less than three separate times that he assured me that it +was his own silk pajamas that were encasing the limbs of the resurrected +hero. He switched subjects reluctantly, rising to go to his waiting +launch. + +"Nothing in the world the matter with the big fellow--not even too much +drink," he said as he began shuffling his health sheets together. "He +must have passed away from the sheer mental strain of the stunt he had +tackled. Intense nervous strain--that was the one thing written all over +the man. Face was starting to bloat a bit from the heat by the time I +saw it first; but, even so, it still showed the lines of the most +terrible mental suffering. Seemed to have gone out fighting hard to pull +himself together--shoulders hunched up, finger-nails clenched deep into +palms, lower lip bitten clean through." + +"May not those--those things you mention have been caused by physical +rather than mental agony?" I asked, speaking very slowly to hide the +agitation aroused by this significant intelligence. "Isn't that about +the way a man would repress his feelings if he was racked with--with +stomach cramps--if he had eaten something that disagreed with him?" + +"Possibly so," admitted the Doctor, with the air of a man weighing +an idea that had not occurred to him before; "but somehow that +wasn't the suggestion they carried to me--nor to any of us. Fact is, +though, we didn't give the matter very much attention. That chap was +dead--finished,--while the other white man and the girl--to say nothing +of forty or fifty niggers--were alive. Then, with the excitement of +finding we had the great Hartley Allen on our hands--and, on top of +that, having the girl run _amuck_ and give us the slip complete,--there +was enough else to think about. The only--" + +"The girl gave you the slip?" I interrupted. "How was that? You didn't +mention it before." + +"Bolted and drowned herself in the creek," he replied; "or at least +there's every reason to believe she drowned herself, though they haven't +found her body yet. She wasn't going to leave the Skipper, even when we +started to take his body away for burial.... And of course we couldn't +allow her to leave the Station until her period of quarantine was over. +Had to take her away from the body by main force. She fought the whole +lot of us with tooth and nail and a wicked little curly-bladed dagger. +Stood us all off, too, and looked like getting ready to use the knife on +herself when the big Malay (who chanced to be there, but had taken no +part in the shindy up to that moment) stepped in, caught her wrist and +took the nasty little toy away from her. + +"The big yellow man seemed to have rather a quieting effect on the girl. +Blind mad as she was, she didn't try to stick him. It seemed to steady +her a good deal when he talked to her in her own lingo. She was panting +like a cat coming out of a fit when we left her, but was quite over her +raving--wasn't even sobbing aloud. She was coming out of her +hysteria--getting rational again. Her eyes, though still wild and almost +throwing off sparks of anger, were quite free of the crazy look. It +looked like our trouble with her was about over, but, to be on the safe +side, we locked her up in one of the 'mad' rooms. That was the last +anyone has seen of her alive--or any other way, for that matter. + +"You wouldn't have believed the thing possible!" he ejaculated +feelingly, turning back from the door and slapping the table +resoundingly with his portfolio. "That room was made to confine +dangerous lunatics in, and it had fulfilled its purpose, too--up to +night before last. To make it perfectly secure, it had been constructed +without windows--nothing but a two-by-two hole up against the +twelve-foot-high ceiling admitted light and air. There were no beds or +chairs to be broken up when the occupant had tantrums.... Just sleeping +mats, a sheet, a blanket and a mosquito net. No more. Even the wash +basin was brought in and taken out by the attendant. + +"In locking the girl in, no precautions were omitted except that of +strapping her in a strait-jacket, and we had never resorted to that save +in violent cases. The window--or rather air-hole--was so high and so +small that it had never been considered worth while to put bars on it. +But as it was the only conceivable way she could have got out (the +attendant is absolutely trustworthy, and the key was not in his hands +more than a minute or two anyway), we would have been forced to conclude +that the girl had reached it with wings--had not we found the lower four +or five feet of wall marked with the prints of the toes and balls of the +bare feet which had apparently been violently projected against it. That +led us to get a ladder and light and examine about the window more +closely. For a foot or more below it the wall was splashed with blood +and slightly scratched, where lacerated fingers had clawed at the narrow +ledge. + +"It did not take us long to figure that, taking the whole length of the +room to get going in, the girl had flung herself up the wall something +in the way that a terrier will run six or eight feet up the side of a +house for a ball or handkerchief fastened there. That's the only way we +could account for the toe-prints on the wall, though it is quite +possible that, after failing to pull off the trick in that fashion--it's +a stunt that looks dead hopeless for anything but a monkey,--she managed +it with a straight spring, high enough to get her fingers over the +ledge. Even from there, not one woman in a million could pull herself +up. But we had already remarked on the extreme wiriness of the girl (a +regular human ape she was for agility), and so found it a bit easier to +accept the evidence of our eyes. In some way or another she had managed +it. + +"The air-hole opened out under the eaves of the sheet-iron roof," the +Doctor went on, forgetting his waiting launch in the interest of the +story, and seating himself again at the table. "It must have taken some +jolly snaky wriggling to crawl through the hole, out over the eaves and +on top of the roof; but she did it, else she could never have jumped +across the big banyan, where we found some twigs broken at the point she +hit, and some wisps of silk floss. The other side of that banyan--a +hundred feet from the wall of the hospital--spreads until it comes to +about fifteen feet from the station wall. The wall is ten feet high, has +broken glass on the top of it, with three or four strands of barbed wire +above that. + +"Swinging to the ground by a pendent air-root on the side she had landed +in, the girl crossed under the tree--the marks of her bare feet showing +plainly in the soft earth--and used a similar ladder with which to mount +on the other side. To be sure of clearing the barbed wire, she had +climbed to a firm perch fully twenty-five feet from the ground, and made +her final jump from there. Luckily for her, the cane field on the other +side of the wall had been flooded but a day or two before--though I +don't doubt she would have jumped just the same if it had been to a +cobblestone pavement. + +"We found the deep prints of her feet, knees and hands where she had +sprawled on striking. Her tracks down to the edge of a sprouting row of +seed-cane, and the marks where she had crawled up out of a deep +irrigating ditch to the road, were all we had to indicate the direction +she had taken. As she had seemed plumb daft about the dead Skipper, we +figured that she had probably broken out with the idea of going to his +grave, and perhaps making an end of herself there. If that was it, she +failed. There were no signs whatever of her having been near the fresh +mound we had tucked the big fellow away under. It was some distance away +from the Station, and, in the night, it isn't likely she would have met +anyone to ask the way of. The only grave she found was her own, and not +a very restful one at that, I'm afraid. + +"We had noticed that she seemed to set great store by a big yellow shawl +she wore--rather a fine old piece of Oriental work it looked, with a +dragon or some other kind of wild animal embroidered on it. Well, when +we found that lying on the bank of Ross Creek, just a bit inland of the +town, we felt so sure that it marked the jumping-off place for her in +more ways than one. For that reason, what search has been pressed since +has been in the form of shooting alligators, and seeing if one of them +appears to have enjoyed anything extra-special in the way of tucker +lately." + +An impatient toot from his launch carried the Doctor to the door again, +where he paused long enough to assure me for the third or fourth time +that it would be most unlikely that permission would be granted me to +see the Mate or the Boatswain of the _Cora_ until their spell of +quarantine was over. If I was really anxious about it, he would gladly +put in a word for me with the Chief. I would have to show good reason +for my request, of course. Perhaps, if it chanced that I was able to +shed any light on how the schooner came to get into such a mess--I cut +him short by saying that I might call at the Quarantine Station when I +came ashore a little later. What I knew about the sailing of the _Cora_ +from Kai happened to be the one thing I didn't care to confide to +anyone--just yet. Asking the Mate to order my boat to stand by for me a +few minutes longer, I went to my cabin to be alone while I turned the +fresh developments over in my mind. + +I had been prepared to await the coming of the _Cora_ indefinitely. In +fact, what I expected above anything else was that the final news would +be a report that she had been found piled up on any one of a thousand +reefs that spread their coral claws all the way from the Louisiades to +the Great Barrier. And in case she did get through, I was quite prepared +to learn that both of the white men and the girl had succumbed to the +plague. But to be told that, after the schooner had avoided disaster, +and all three of them the plague, that the two upon whom my interest and +affection had centred were gone--dead,--was just a bit staggering. It +was now up to me to determine upon a definite course of action, and, +since it was now out of the question attempting to follow my first +impulse of going to Allen at once and forcing a showdown, I wanted time +to think. + +What the Doctor had told me of the way Bell appeared to have died had +instantly reawakened my suspicions of Allen. Had the _kor-klee_, working +with a recurrent effect, finally proved fatal? Or had Allen, perhaps, +administered a second and stronger dose? He would have had a hundred +opportunities to do that had he desired to. Rona's attacks on the Mate, +indicating the deadliest hatred, seemed to prove that her first +suspicions of him had not weakened during the voyage--more likely, +indeed, had hardened to a certainty. The belief I had been entertaining +that Allen had made up his mind to play the game out on the square was +not very deeply grounded. + +My sense of personal loss in the passing of Bell and Rona was not a +thing I cared to let myself dwell upon for the moment. There was no +question that the news of Rona's death had shocked me even more than +that of Bell's. Not that there was anything more between us than I have +already told. I had never let myself think of her in terms of physical +possession, though the sheer animal attraction of the girl was beyond +anything I had ever experienced in a woman. But her appeal to the +artistic side of me had been stronger even than that. Just as the thrill +I felt at the first sight of her bathing in the pink-lipped bowl of the +reef had made the very world itself seem more wonderful and beautiful, +so now the depression that filled me on realizing that I was never again +to have sight of her made the world seem emptier and drearier. + +Another thing: there was no denying that Bell, splendid fellow that he +was, had shot his bolt. A real come-back with him was too much to +expect. The most that could have been hoped for was that he would +"finish in style," and that I was assured he had done, no matter in what +agony of soul and body his brave spirit had taken flight. But Rona's +bolt was still unsped. The girl had hardly begun to finger Life's +bowstring. It was almost as hard to think of the flaming, soaring spirit +of her as quenched, as it was to believe that the matchless perfection, +the supple gracefulness of her body--_shooting alligators to see if any +of them had been enjoying anything extra-special in tucker lately_! I +could not pursue that line of thought any further. I agreed with the +Doctor that the fact that the girl had parted with her beloved shawl +indicated that she had reached a jumping-off place--a point where she +had no further use for it. I could not picture her--living--without its +amber-bright flame streaming about her limbs. The wonder was that she +had not kept it for a shroud. As I came out upon the deck to go to my +boat, the intermittent crack of rifle shots along the shore told me that +the "search" had not been abandoned. + +Beyond deciding to go ashore and see if anything further could be +learned, I had made no plans. It seemed that about the best I could do +would be to wait in Townsville until Allen and Ranga were out of +quarantine, and then let things shape as they would; but always assuming +that, in case the former could not satisfy me he was innocent of Bell's +death, I should do what I could to settle the reckoning with him. That +would be my atonement--to Bell and to myself--for my sorry failure to +"measure up" the day the _Cora Andrews_ came to Kai Lagoon. + +Captain Tancred, who had never quite settled it in his own mind how a +man who openly admitted he had been living in the Kai colony for months +would not have to be smuggled ashore on the quiet if he expected to +avoid arrest in Australia, met me at the gangway. + +"Best to leave the luggage aboard, lad," he began genially; "then +that'll be ain less thing ye'll hae to bother wi' if ye're haen' to cut +an' run for it. If ye're not back ag'in by the time I'm gettin' awa', +than I'll be sendin' it in for ye on the Company's launch. But ye'd best +be hangin' on wi' me a bittie, an' tak' me to see them pictur's ye've +been tellin' me aboot in Sydney toon." + +My pictures! The Exhibition had slipped my mind completely, driven out +by the news of the _Cora_ and the anxieties that had followed in its +train. I had told Captain Tancred something of my coming show, but had +hardly convinced him. He was far too considerate to say outright that he +didn't believe me, but my Kai origin could not be ignored. If I was to +have an exhibition of paintings in Sydney, then why was I stopping off +in Townsville? On that point--since I didn't want to go into the _Cora_ +affair with anyone until I knew how things were going to shape--I had +hardly been able to reassure the old sceptic. I might be an artist all +right enough--I don't think he had any serious doubts on that +score,--but I must also be some kind of a crook. He was plainly +convinced in his own mind that I was trying to slip into Australia on +the quiet, and was rather hurt because I would not take him into my +confidence and let him help me. + +But why not take in the Exhibition? In nine days, with any luck in +connections, I could go to Sydney and back, with a day or two to spare. +Even if the trip ran over that time, it was not likely that the man I +wanted to see would be getting away immediately.... And, in any event, I +would know how to find him, whether in Australia or the Islands. +Further, it could not but have a salutary effect on my nerves to get +quite beyond the attraction I felt that Quarantine Station would have +for me if I lingered within physical reach of it. Nothing but absinthe, +and more absinthe, and then more absinthe, could be depended upon to +relieve my nerves once they were fully wrought up, as I knew they must +be if I remained in Townsville in enforced inaction, fretting my heart +out with impatience. And too much absinthe would mean only one +thing--that I would begin the day on which I was to meet "Slant" Allen +for a final showdown in a condition of mind and body precisely similar +to that in which I had entered upon another day of accursed memory--and, +doubtless, with equally shameful consequences to myself. + +These thoughts flashed through my mind in a fraction of the time I have +taken to set them down. My reply to Captain Tancred followed close upon +his suggestion that I leave my luggage aboard. + +"I think I'll be going through to Sydney with you, Captain--or at least +as far as Brisbane," I said, motioning to the steward to bring up the +bags he had already stowed in the waiting boat. "I know no one whose +opinion on my daubs I'd rather have than yours. But I'll pay my little +visit ashore here just the same, counting on you to get my kit landed in +the unlikely event of my not being aboard again when you get under way +this afternoon." + +I was not long in coming to the conclusion that there was nothing new to +be learned ashore, that is, with respect to what had happened on the +_Cora_ in the course of her voyage from Kai. This was not because the +story was not on everyone's lips.... Quite to the contrary, indeed, the +town was agog with the dramatic suddenness of the arrival of the plague +ship and its astonishing sequel. But as no one had been allowed to see +any of the survivors, such accounts as were current were only those +which had been passed out by the quarantine people, and about all the +latter knew I felt that I had already gathered that morning from the +Doctor on the _Utupua_. Bell's name was not mentioned, and not a man I +talked with knew that the dead white man had been the Skipper. + +For Townsville--for all of Australia--the overwhelming appeal of the +event was in the fact that a black-birding schooner had been brought +into port by an ex-Ticket-of-Leavester, who had _volunteered_ to risk +his life in an attempt to save those of half a hundred plague-stricken +niggers. That one circumstance in itself was wonderful enough, but when, +on top of it, the announcement was made that the hero was none other +than the former idol of sporting Australia, the Hon. Hartley Allen, +popular imagination was stirred as rarely ever before. What man in all +the Antipodes had not envied Allen, the supremely successful owner, +rider and sportsman? What woman had not been intrigued by the romantic +dash of him? What boy had not dreamed of growing up in his image? + +Townsville, delirious with the dramatic appeal of this splendid act on +the part of a man who had tasted the wine of adulation as he had drunk +the dregs of infamy, was but a microcosm of Sydney and Melbourne, +Brisbane and Adelaide, to all of which the news had been flashed by +wire. Every town and hamlet, from Cairns to Hobart, from Perth to +Woolongong, were dispatching telegrams of congratulation to a man who +was still muttering in his drunken sleep behind the walls of the +Townsville Quarantine Station. Sydney was competing with Brisbane for +the honour of being the first to bestow the "Freedom of the City" upon +the man both of them had had some share in transporting. A special from +Sydney to the local sheet, hinted darkly of what might happen to the +misguided official who attempted to revive any of the old charges +against the man "whose sublime courage had emblazoned his name upon the +tablets of undying fame.... A hand that is raised today against the Hon. +Hartley Allen is a hand that is raised against the noblest traditions of +Australia." + +I had to elbow through half of a densely packed block to read that last +on the bulletin in front of the _Trumpet's_ office. The mob cheered +wildly as the message was chalked up on the blackboard--cheered the +stirring sentiment and growled ominously at the suggestion that any hand +would dare to be raised against the Hon. Hartley Allen and the noblest +traditions of Australia. As I elbowed my way out again, I wondered just +what the Charters Towers miner, who had manifested his exuberant +approval by slapping me on the back, would have thought--nay, what he +would have done--had he known that the hand fingering the guard of the +revolver in the right side-pocket of my shooting jacket (I had brought +the useful little weapon on the off chance that it might be needed) was +rather more likely than not to be raised against at least one of those +cherished institutions he was so anxious to uphold. + +I began to perceive that the line between dealing out retributive +justice to a blackguard of a murderer and assassinating a national hero +in cold blood might easily become too hairlike in its tenuousness for a +red-eyed Australian jury to admit the existence of it. For it was +nothing less than a national hero that "Slant" Allen was becoming, even +before he roused from the heavy sleep which had held him ever since he +collapsed over the wheel as the _Cora_ came to anchor. That +circumstance, I told myself, complicated my task beyond measure, though +I couldn't, of course, allow it to make any difference in my program in +the event Allen wasn't able to satisfy me that he was guiltless of the +murder of my friend. But if things should transpire which might make +Allen anxious to put _me_ out of the way--if he, not I were the +attacking party--that would simplify things greatly. I began to ponder +that felicitous possibility. + +Would not the fact that I was the only living man (Ranga, whatever he +had seen or heard, would hardly need to be reckoned with as a witness) +who knew the actual facts about the way he had "volunteered" to join the +_Cora_ at Kai awaken a desire in Allen's lawless breast to seal my mouth +for good and all, now that he had so much to lose by the truth's coming +out? The feeling that such would be the case--that the dizzily mounting +fortunes of the ex-beach-comber would ultimately impel him to seek me +out for an understanding--grew on me more and more as I turned the +situation over in my mind, until at last it became a certainty, against +which I felt justified in preparing as a boxer trains for a definitely +scheduled prize fight. + +I did not reckon it worth while to call at the Quarantine Station, which +was some distance from the town and not easy to reach. I did, however, +just before I put off to the ship, meet the young doctor with whom I had +talked in the morning. The only thing which he was able to add to what +he had already told me was in connection with the question I had raised +respecting the cause of Bell's death. To be certain that he had been +correct in stating that the latter had not died of plague, he had made a +special inquiry. In response to this he had been shown a slide made from +a smear they had taken of the late Skipper's blood. The bacteriologist +had seen to that immediately the body was landed. It showed no traces +whatever of plague bacilli. I could be quite assured on that point. The +Chief was unwilling to hazard an opinion as to what the real cause of +the man's death might have been. He seemed rather to regret that he had +failed to order a post-mortem. Allen was still sleeping heavily, but +would be right as a trivet beyond a doubt as soon as he woke up and gave +them a chance to sweat some of the alcohol out of his hide. Pulse steady +as a church.... Temperature a shade sub-normal. Marvellous +constitution.... Wonderful fellow altogether. Any word of the girl? No, +nothing. Ten pounds reward had been offered for the recovery of her +body, or any recognizable part of it. Search was still going on, and he +pointed across to the opposite foreshore, where a couple of spindling +Hindu coolies--evidently sugar plantation contract hands--were earnestly +engaged in performing "_hari-kiri_" upon a plethoric 'gator they had +just bagged and towed to the beach. + +The Doctor was already beginning to look ahead. Did I fancy Allen would +be able to wangle it so as to get an entry in for the Melbourne Cup in +the short time that remained before that classic was run? Entries closed +some time ago, of course. He'd have to square it with the stewards some +way. They might make a special exception, seeing who Allen was, and what +he had just done. Any horse with his colours would carry a barrel of +money, just out of sentiment if nothing else. Did I think he would +wangle an entry? + +"No," I replied, stepping down into my boat. "No, I'm afraid the chances +are all against it." My mind had been torn with doubt over a number of +things that day.... It was a relief to be asked to express an opinion on +a matter respecting which I had no doubt.... Not a shred of it. + +Captain Tancred welcomed me back to the _Utupua_ with a significant +grin. "So ye didna find the outlook ashore to yer likin' lad?" he boomed +boisterously, thumping me on the back. "Weel, dinna ye mind, since ye +wasna nabbed. I'll be findin' a wa' to slip ye aff in Sydney sae they +wan't be puttin' nose to yer trail till ye're clean awa'." The look on +the old boy's face was a study when, a few days later, after the tugs +had nosed his ship into her berth at the Circular Quay, I stalked +brazenly off down the gangway, with no more regard for the two Bobbies +guarding the dock gate than they had for me. He had exacted two promises +from me before he let me go: one, that I was to take him to see my +pictures, and the other, that I would not fail to let him know if there +ever came a time when he could be of Service to me.... "Real sarvice, +lad; you'll be twiggin' wha' I mean." I gave both promises freely, just +as I kept them later--yes, both of them. + +As I had trunks, with all the common accessories of civilization, stored +at the _Australia_, my transformation from a beach-comber to a fairly +correct imitation of a comfortably heeled artist was the matter of but a +few hours. My appearance at the Exhibition could not have been better +timed. The affair had been extremely well handled from the first. I had +been sending pictures to Sydney from all parts of the South Seas for the +last eighteen months, packing them up as completed and getting them off +whenever opportunity offered. Two or three had been lost, but, on the +whole, I reckoned the plan safer than trying to take them round with me +in one lot, at the risk of losing the bunch. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + ART AND SUSPENSE + + +Nothing had been further from my mind than an Australian exhibition. I +cared little for the provincial approbation of the Antipodes, and I was +hardly ready for Paris--not quite yet. It was only at the reiterated +requests of friends (two of them were young Australian artists I had +known in my student days in Paris), to whom I was under real obligations +for their kindness in receiving and storing my pictures as they dribbled +into Sydney, that I finally gave consent to a public showing. In doing +this, I had stipulated particularly that they were to take all the +troubles and responsibilities of the affair, and that under no +circumstances was I to be expected to appear in person--unless, of +course, it suited my convenience and inclination at the time. + +As I have said, the affair had been most intelligently handled from the +first. There had not been enough of my canvases comfortably to fill the +wing of the big New South Wales Government Museum and Art Gallery which +was available for exhibitions, but my friends, rather than pull the show +off at a less pretentious and worse lighted gallery, had added enough of +their own pictures to relieve the coldness of otherwise blank walls. +These were also South Sea marines--it was a straight seascape show +throughout,--but more or less conventional in inspiration and execution. +Benchley might have been painting marine backgrounds for an aquarium, so +faithfully did he labour to reproduce every detail of jutting coral +branches and floating seaweed. Crafts, on the other hand, had fallen +early under the influence of Turner, and persisted in bulling the yellow +ochre market by drenching his Great Barrier Reef seascapes with such a +flood of golden light as was never seen save at the head of the Adriatic +and now and then on the coasts of Tripoli and Algeria. + +I would hardly characterize my own work as a compromise between these +two extremes.... It was _not_ that, though I _was_ less of a slave to +form than Benchley, and by no means so emancipated from it as Crafts. +Rather, I should say, I was striving, independent of either classic or +contemporary influence, to paint such depth, warmth and atmosphere into +my tropical seascapes as would make them convey an _intenser_ suggestion +of reality. I did not expect water spaniels to pay me the subtle +compliment of trying to gambol in my breakers, nor children to try to +launch their toy sailboats in my lagoons.... Benchley's "colour +photograph" effects were more likely to attain to those distinctions +than my comparatively impressionistic sketches. What I was striving for +was an effect that would compel some such comment as old Jackson had +made the first time he stood off and conned my "Swells and +Shells"--"Gawd bly'me, that's _it_! That water's wetter 'n a swept deck, +an', s'elp me Mike, but I c'n bloomin' near sniff them bloody clams!" + +Very naturally, then, since the sea was what I was painting, the +impressions of anyone who didn't know the sea as intimately as did my +beach-combing cronies of Kai wasn't going to worry me much. The opinions +of men who knew less about the subject of my pictures, and more about +how pictures in general were painted, didn't strike me as anything that +counted very seriously. Nevertheless when, at Brisbane on the voyage +south, I got the Sydney papers with the account of the opening of the +show, it was a good deal of a satisfaction to find that my work appeared +to have got over with the art critics. These had, of course (since they +were denied Jackson's facility of expression), to confine themselves to +the jargon of their kind. It was plain, however, that they had been +favourably impressed, and were doing the best they could with their +comparatively restricted vocabularies. Mere city dwellers, too, most of +them, one had to allow for their limited capacity of appreciation for +something--the sea--which they knew only from other pictures. But even +allowing for that, it was reassuring to find that they were coming +across so whole-heartedly. Such capsules of praise as they had in stock +were scattered with lavish hands for whoso would to swallow. "The soul +of the sea palpitates through every canvas," said the _Herald_; "you +leave the gallery with the tang of blown brine fresh in your nostrils," +said the _Telegraph_; "Australia is honoured with having the first +chance to see this brilliantly distinctive work," said the illustrated +_Australasian_, and promised four full pages of reproductions of the +"gems of the collection" in its next issue. The young lady (I judged she +was young) who was on the job for the Melbourne _Age_ gushed +breathlessly for a column and a half. This was a sample: "In +'Mother-of-Pearl' he has woven with a warp of sunbeams and a woof of +rainbow--a shimmering brocade of exultantly sentient brightness!" +Capsules of praise, every one of these; but they were from the top shelf +beyond a doubt, and the fact that they had been reached for indicated +that at least something of my message had dribbled over the frames. + +The _Bulletin_ had done rather better than the others in commissioning +for the occasion an "art critic" who (as transpired in the course of his +half-page article) had sailed his own sixty-footer to Auckland and back. +He, at least, had met the sea on more intimate terms than was possible +through Sunday mixed-bathing at Coogee and Manley (with occasional +ferryboat passages, about the limit the others had gone, I reckoned). +Said he, in speaking of "The Seventh Son of a Seventh Son": "The beat of +the eternal sea was behind every slash of the brush with which this +Franco-American wizard of light and colour painted that rolling mountain +of water. I felt my fingers involuntarily clutching at the spokes of the +wheel to bring her up to meet the menace of that curling crest. I forgot +where I was ... I almost felt the heave of a deck beneath my feet...." + +I rather liked that, I must confess; though perhaps it didn't give me +quite the double-barrelled thrill of "Heifer" Halligan's comment when I +sent for him to pass judgment on that same picture before the paint of +my finishing touches upon it was dry. A month before, as I have already +mentioned, I had given the "Heifer" a pretty severe pummelling with the +four-ounce gloves, and, like the good sport he was, to show that there +was no hard feeling on the score of his battered optics, he had +volunteered to sail me in his sloop to Tuka-tuva (the reef on which Bell +lost the _Flying Scud_, it may be recalled) so that I could make some +close-range studies of hard-running waves at the point of breaking. And, +just to show that there was no hard feeling on _my_ part over the wallop +below my belt with which the "Heifer" had finally brought the bout to a +close, I accepted. The studies had been made--just a few slashes on +oil-cloth with a rather useful waterproof paint I had mixed specially +for "sloppy" stunts like that--with my shivering anatomy lashed to the +_Wet-Eyed Susy's_ bowsprit, while the "Heifer" tacked back and forth +just beyond the line where the pull of the shoaling reef, dragging at +their bases, let the green-black tops of the combers tumble over in a +thunderous roar. As he was really taking a good deal of a chance of +losing his handy little pearler, if nothing else, it was only right that +the "Heifer's" request for a first look-see at the completed picture +should have the call. + +He studied it in silence for a minute or two, legs wide apart and his +bullet head cocked judicially to one side. Then his fine teeth were +bared in a broad grin and he vented a throaty chuckle of amused +admiration. Said he: "Mister Whitney, that hulkin' ol' lalapalooser +there looks like he has all the kick behint him of that bally wallop on +the solar plexus you floored me with the other day." Not even the Sydney +_Bulletin's dilletante_ yachtsman could do quite as well as that--from +my standpoint, at least. But of course I had a weakness for the Kai +viewpoint. + +The Exhibition had been opened early in the week--the usual affair of +the kind, "Under the Patronage and in the Presence of His Excellency, +the Governor General and Lady X----," and a long list of specially +invited guests. Amiable old Lord X---- had made one of the happy little +speeches for which he was famous. Then they had all had tea and a look +at the pictures. This inevitable formal session out of the way, the show +was opened to the general public. Under the stimulus of the +astonishingly enthusiastic press, the public had come through beyond all +expectations. For the next three days the crush at the gallery was, as +the _Bulletin_ had it, like a "bargain day rush at _Morden's_." On +Friday, it was advertised, Sir Joseph Preston, R.A., a very +distinguished English artist visiting in Australia, had consented to +speak at the Exhibition on "The Painter with the New Method and the New +Message." This was the day of my arrival in Sydney. It did not occur to +me at first just who the subject of the discourse was to be. When it +finally came home to me, I began speeding up my transformation process +at once. By dint of rushed valeting and dressing, I just managed to +reach the gallery as Sir Joseph was getting under way. + +I won't endeavour to set down his speech, not even in outline. It was +highly complimentary from first to last--and not even condescending, +which was as surprising as pleasing when one considered how lofty an +eminence Sir Joseph occupied in the art world. One thing I was just a +bit disappointed about, though, was that the speaker seemed to assume +that the pictures on exhibition represented my ultimate expression, the +best I could do, or could be expected to do; whereas I knew that I had +hardly got my foot well planted on the first rung of the ladder. I +regretted without resenting this. I hadn't painted my hopes and +ambitions into the pictures, so how was Sir Joseph Preston, more than +anybody else, to see what I was driving at? I rather wanted to tell him +about it, though. I hadn't talked with an artist of the old boy's +calibre since I was in Paris, and not often there. + +I was just screwing up my nerve to push in and introduce myself, when +Benchley pounced upon me with a joyous whoop and did the thing as a +matter of course. Totally oblivious of the widening circle of wondering +cackle that arose as the news of my unexpected, and not undramatic, +appearance spread outward through the jam, I held forth to the beaming +Royal Academician on the things that had been passing through my mind. +The great man fired as though he had been of tow and my words--my +ideas--were a torch laid to the inflammable mass of him. + +"Magnificent! Perfectly ripping!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm; "but +what a shame I didn't know that ten minutes ago so that I could have +told them! By Jove, I'll tell them now! Better yet--jolly good idea; +_you_ tell them. Just the things you've been telling me." + +Benchley, Crafts and my other sponsors descended upon me like a pack of +hounds at those words, and the first thing I knew I had been hustled up +onto their little dais, and Sir Joseph was introducing me as "a +gentleman who can make a few pertinent additions to my late remarks." + +I hadn't been called upon for a speech since I won the middle-weight +boxing championship of Harvard in my Junior year, and speaking was by no +means my long suit even in those days. I bucked up and went through it +now though, just as I did on that first occasion. It's no very difficult +thing to get away with when you know what you want to say--and have the +crowd with you. I spoke briefly, but very earnestly--very much to the +point, too, I think. When the crowd had quieted down a bit, tea was +served. The next morning, when I read the papers in bed, it was to +discover that I had become a fully fledged--or perhaps maned is the +proper word--lion. + +In one of those same papers there was an interesting item of news about +another lion. The special representative the _Herald_ had rushed to +Townsville immediately the news of the _Cora Andrews_ affair had been +received, wired that the Hon. Hartley Allen, replying from the +Quarantine Station to a note the correspondent had addressed him there, +announced definitely that it was his intention to pay a visit to his old +home town of Sydney. He would leave by the first steamer sailing after +the doctors had certified him free of the danger of plague infection. + +That was good news. The best I could have hoped for. It confirmed my +growing belief that I was not going to have to do much, if any, seeking +in order to meet my man. And it was a hundred to one that the doctor +with whom I had talked on the _Utupua_ had told Allen of the +conversation as soon as the latter came out of his long sleep, I was +even inclined to the opinion that his decision to go south as soon as he +could had been influenced by a desire to find out once and for all what +attitude I was going to take toward him. This was all to the good. There +was no need of my hurrying back to Townsville now. I could stay in +Sydney and enjoy my triumph while watching that of the Hon. Hartley +Allen develop. With a lighter heart than I had known since the rumble of +the _Cora's_ anchor chain awakened me on that day of hateful memory in +Kai, I tumbled out of bed, took a cold bath, and went down to the +dining-room for breakfast--the greatest burst of early matutinal energy +I had shown in years. + +The avidity of the interest of the public in the Hon. Hartley Allen +increased day by day as the time approached for the hero to come south. +All of the important papers had special men on the job in Townsville, +and every scrap of news bearing the least relation to the man of the +hour was instantly put on the wires and rushed into print. Save for that +one announcement that he intended visiting Sydney, Allen himself gave +out nothing. The correspondents had to confine themselves to reports of +his continued improvement in health, as passed out to them by the +doctors, and to speculation--columns of it--as to what effect Allen's +return might be expected to have upon racing. His elder brother--Sir +James, who was now in England--had allowed Hartley's stable to run down +a good deal after the latter had been shipped off to the Islands. There +were a few good horses left after the best of the string had been sold +to pay off debts, and these would form a nucleus which could not fail to +develop quickly into a factor to be reckoned with in the meets of next +season. There was no limit to the discussion of this phase of the +affair, Melbourne and Sydney racing experts devoting even more space to +it than the special men in Townsville. + +Of the story of the _Cora Andrews_ there was nothing new whatever being +brought out. If Allen was telling the doctors at the Quarantine Station +anything, it must have been in confidence, for these professed to have +learned nothing further every time the correspondents pressed them for +details. The schooner herself, it was reported, had broken from her +mooring during a gale and been driven upon the beach of Cleveland Bay, +some miles from the town. A hole had been stove in her bow and it would +be impossible to get her off before considerable repairs were carried +out. As she had not been disinfected since the removal of the plague +victims, there would probably be some delay about the repairs, +especially as the question of her ownership was in doubt. She had +belonged to the man who sailed her in the labour-recruiting trade, and +he was dead. So was the Skipper who had taken her over in the +Louisiades. It looked like the Hon. Hartley Allen had the most valid +claim to her, but that was a matter to be adjusted by the courts in any +event. In the meantime, the schooner, as she was lying in fairly quiet +water, was probably safe until the next gale. Thus the papers. + +When Allen finally came out of quarantine it transpired that he would +have a wait of three days on his hands before there was a steamer +departing for the south. The delay was unavoidable, although an +enthusiastic Sydney paper had suggested that the Admiral commanding the +Australian Naval Station should detach a gunboat to bring the hero home. +Allen, it appeared, had actually tried to avoid meeting the newspaper +men, and consented to do so finally only on the condition that he would +not be expected to give out anything in the way of an interview in +respect to his past, present or future. As they had no alternative in +the matter, the correspondents accepted the ultimatum, but only--as most +of them confessed--in the hope of getting it modified when action was +joined. They were doomed to disappointment. + +Allen received them on the veranda of a house that had been put at his +disposal by a prominent local shipping man--a detached bungalow in the +grounds of the latter's home on the outskirts of the town. They reported +him looking rather soft--a good two stone heavier than his former riding +weight. He was heavily browned from the tropical sun, showed a tinge of +yellow--doubtless from malaria and _dengue_,--and his face was deeply +lined about the eyes and mouth. He looked to have aged rather more than +the five years of his absence: but life in the Islands was hardly the +rest cure most Australians fancied it. No, not by a long shot. + +Except for his refusal to tell anything whatever of the story of how he +had brought the plague ship through the Great Barrier Reef, Allen had +been very courteous and agreeable to the pressmen. They all agreed that +he was in good fettle--quite full of beans. Indeed, it was Allen who did +all of the interviewing. Persistently refusing to answer any questions +about himself, he was avid of interest concerning all that had happened +in the racing world during his absence. What were the real facts behind +the breakdown of the Colchester filly after she had won the Victoria +National so handily? Who was that colt _Ballarat Boy_ out of?--the one +that had upset all the dope in the spring meet at Adelaide. Were Tod +Sloan and Skeets Martin still piling up wins in England? What was the +secret of their success? Was there any chance of these or any other of +the Yank jockeys coming to Australia? + +Answering such questions as these for an hour was the way that bunch of +high-salaried feature writers interviewed the Hon. Hartley Allen. And +when, as one of them put it in somewhat mixed simile, they were "pumped +dry as a last year's dope sheet," the hero announced that the interview +was over. + +Disappointed in their endeavours to pry any pearls from the oyster +into which Allen (for reasons best known to himself) had metamorphosed +himself, the correspondents made the best of a bad job by playing up +the modesty of the man they had been sent a thousand miles or so to +interview. Modest was an adjective that--in the light of what most of +them knew of Allen's past--it hadn't occurred to any of them to use +before. Now, however, they made up for lost time. The modest hero did +this, or the modest hero said that.... There was modesty in the way he +stroked his chin, in the shrug of his shoulders, in the way he crossed +and uncrossed his legs when sitting. His habit of looking sideways +when speaking was rated as a sign of modesty; so was the trick of +stroking his cheroot between thumb and forefinger as he smoked. +_Modest_--_hero_--those words became permanently wedded in my mind +during the week that I was reading leaders written with them for an +inspiration, the report of sermons preached with them as a text. I +cannot hear the one of them to this day without thinking of the other. +_Modest hero!_ In the estimation of the public "Slant" Allen, whom I had +always thought of as the most egotistic man I had ever known, remained +that to the--until public estimation ceased to interest him. + +There was one little item of news telegraphed from Townsville which I +read with a good deal of grim amusement. The day before his departure +Allen was given some kind of a send-off in the Town Hall. As he was +riding down the main street on his way to this affair, a man ducked +under the rope holding the crowd back at the curb, rushed at the open +carriage and aimed a blow at the breast of the hero with a knife. No +whit perturbed, the latter had coolly deflected the thrust by striking +up the assailant's elbow with his left hand. Then, seizing the ruffian's +wrist with his right hand, he had brought it sharply down on the edge of +the carriage door, shattering the bones and causing the knife to fall +from the relaxed fingers to the pavement. Infuriated by the dastardly +attack, the crowd had set upon the would-be assassin, who was only saved +from being mauled to death through the interference of none other than +Allen himself. + +The correspondents were much impressed, not only by the behaviour of the +generous-hearted hero in intervening to save the life of the man who had +just tried to take his own, but also--and especially--by a curious +little circumstance in connection therewith. It was observed, in short, +that, while Allen had defended his own body most effectually with his +bare hands, as soon as he saw that the man who had attacked him was on +the verge of being killed by a bloody-minded mob, quite beyond police +control, he whipped out a revolver and used the menace of it to clear a +space around the trampled body of his late assailant. The correspondents +all thought that was rather fine; indeed, I was inclined to think so +myself. + +Allen had flatly refused to lodge a complaint against the man who had +tried so desperately to knife him, and even declined to help the police +in their attempt to identify the fellow. "Just an old Island affair, the +big-hearted hero had explained with a careless laugh, as he turned on +his way to receive the Golden Key symbolizing the Freedom of the Queen +City of Northern Queensland." That was the way the _Herald_ man had it. + +At the Police Station the prisoner was recognized at once as a man named +Saunders, who had been convicted of a series of bullion robberies in the +Kalgoorlie gold fields of Western Australia some years previously. +Because of his diabolical practice of throwing red pepper and vitriol to +blind his victims, he had gained the sobriquet of "The Squid." He had +escaped after serving but eighteen months of his twenty-five-year +sentence and made his way across the "Never-Never" to Port Darwin, where +all trace of him was lost for the time. He was supposed to have slipped +away to the Islands. This was confirmed a few months later, when a +boatload of out-bound placer miners were held up and robbed of the +fruits of their season's work in the Fly gold fields of New Guinea. Even +if one of them, who had once been in Western Australia, had not +identified Saunders, the fact that a jar of sulphuric acid had been +thrown into the midst of the miners would have connected "The Squid" +with the crime beyond a doubt. Australia had but fragmentary record of +his later crimes, but he was known to have been mixed up in a number of +pearl robberies in and about Thursday Island. He had continued to +practise his vitriol-throwing trick (varying it occasionally with a +fiendishly original stunt with some native concoction), and was still +known as "The Squid." How long he had been lying low in Australia, or +why he ventured there, he refused to tell; neither would he offer any +explanation of his savage attack upon the hero of the hour. All he had +said in the latter connection was: "'Slant' 'll twig why I took a flyer +at returning the pig-sticker to him--it was his onct." + +I understood at once that the root of "The Squid's" grudge against Allen +struck back to that affair of the old pearl pirate's missionary-reared +daughter--a copper-haired, ivory-browed Amazon of a girl who had become +one of the most consummate sirens in the pearleries after a three-months +trip with "Slant" to Singapore had broken her in. Amazing story the +whole thing, from its beginning with the girl's mother--a teacher in the +Gospel Propaganda Society's school at Thursday Island who had fallen +afoul of one of "The Squid's" tentacles long before his conviction--to +its ghastly finish, when the girl herself settled her accumulated +account against all mankind with the body and soul of one--a hot-headed +lump of a young missionary just out from London. + +According to the version current in Kai, Allen had not been greatly to +blame in the affair with the temperamental rack of bones and red braids +that the girl was when she burst upon the Islands from the Auckland +convent; but "The Squid" evidently felt that the man who had set the +snowball (not a very apt metaphor, for I never heard the girl compared +to anything so frigid) rolling was the one to settle with. I had heard +of three or four rather ingeniously thought-out attempts he had made to +square the account, all of which, however, had failed as a consequence +of Allen's quickness of wit and hand in sudden emergency. The knife +figuring in the Townsville attack, it occurred to me, was probably the +one the resourceful "Slant" had put through "The Squid's" shoulder at +twenty paces a fraction of a second before the latter had delivered a +flask of red pepper from his upraised hand. + +I also thought I understood why Allen had bluntly refused to make any +explanation of the attack. A veritable Turk in his relations with women, +that Island Lothario had also the Turk's dislike for discussing his +women in public. When sober, Allen rarely if ever boasted about +anything. When very drunk, he would occasionally toot a horn anent his +racing wins; and once, when he was all but swamped--awash to the rails +with "Three Star"--I had heard him give a maudlin monologue on men he +had put away. But I--and no one else, so far as I knew--had ever heard +him talk of the girls he had bagged, though the Lord knows there had +been enough of them. (The nearest he ever came to it was in that little +joke of his I have mentioned--the one about having "a son and a saddle +in every island group in the South Pacific,"--and that was only a sort +of delicate implication.) His close-mouthedness about women was one of a +number of little things I couldn't help but liking in the rascal. + +Since Allen and Saunders would not talk, and since the knife that +figured in the affair--a heavy dirk, with a shark's hide handle and the +mark of a Lisbon cutlerer on the blade--could not talk, the ever-baffled +Townsville correspondents had been able to gather practically nothing +about what their journalistic noses told them was a red-hot human +interest story. Blocked on that trail, they devoted a lot of space to a +discussion of the interesting revelation of the hero's Island nickname. +More or less ingenious theories as to "Why 'Slant'?" filled the columns +of the papers for a number of days. None of them was within a mile of +the mark. One of the correspondents fancied the name had been given +Allen because of his "aquilinity, his wiry slenderness, so that he clove +the air like a slant of sunbeams as he rode." Another writer was sure +the name was suggested by the hero's peculiar crouching seat--the slant +of his back as he urged on his mount. They were quite incapable of going +beyond Allen's physical characteristics, or of visualizing him save on +horseback. + +That added another little item to the list of things I could have +enlightened the press and the public on about "Slant" Allen, and, in +this particular instance, I wouldn't have minded passing on the facts at +once. Indeed, I made rather a hit at a Government House luncheon one day +by telling how the nearing hero (he was expected to be landing at +Brisbane on the morrow) had qualified for his queer nickname. Jackson, +who was responsible for the title, had confided to me how he came to +bestow it. There was no story behind it, as some of the papers had +hinted. Old "Jack," after having known Allen pretty intimately for a +couple of years, came to the conclusion one day that the lanky +Sydney-sider was the first man he ever met who persistently and +consistently kept him guessing. Given a situation, and the foxy old +highwayman had discovered that he could usually tell in advance how any +given man would be likely to meet it. It was after he had guessed wrong +about Allen some dozens of times, without once guessing right, that +Jackson made up his mind that there was no forecasting the "slant of his +course from the slant of the breeze." And because something in the +mellifluous sound of the word struck pleasantly on the trader's ear, he +began applying the name to the man who had inspired it. "No re'l reason +for it," he explained; "but it sure do seem to fit 'im like a new copper +bottom does a schooner." + +The Governor General's Aide-de-camp, who was something of a follower of +the ponies, confirmed Jackson's opinion and the fitness of the +sobriquet. Said the gaily uniformed "Galloper": "The great secret of +Allen's astonishing success as a point-to-point rider was his amazing +faculty for bringing off the unexpected. Once, at Launceston, I saw him +win on a hundred-to-one shot (how he happened to be riding the skate I +don't know) by deliberately bolting the course and putting his mount +full tilt through a thorn thicket. He was in tenth place, with a mile to +go when he did it, and he won the race by a dozen lengths--his own and +the waler's hide in tatters. + +"Another unexpected win of Allen's," he continued with the wry grin of a +man who speaks of dearly bought experience, "was that 'Totalisator' coup +of his at Adelaide. His pals got in on the 'Tote' somehow, and--" A +warning cough from Lord X---- checked the loquacious "Galloper's" tongue +in mid-flight, and, with reddening gill, he faded away with: "Sorry, +sir, but I forgot it isn't quite--quite the thing to remember that +little chapter of Hartley Allen's past. Quite right, really. My mistake. +Dead sorry, sir...." + +There was no doubt that Allen was going to have a clean-scored slate to +begin writing anew on. I was thinking of that, and "Why 'Slant'?", as I +walked back to the hotel an hour later. "No forecasting the slant of his +course from the slant of the breeze!"... "Faculty for bringing off the +unexpected." I hoped that he wasn't going to disappoint me in the matter +of bringing things to a showdown on his arrival in Sydney. But no.... My +every instinct told me that he would not side-step that. So I made all +preparations properly to receive "Slant" Allen, and, on the day of his +triumphant home-coming, was waiting for him in my room at the +_Australia_, as I have already told. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + A HERO'S HOMECOMING + + +It was two o'clock when I began powdering and screening the yellow-hued +inner lining of my sea shells. Subconsciously, I must have set three in +my mind as the time my caller would come, for it was not until that hour +that I ceased my absorbingly interesting labours and looked at my watch. +So far as I can recall, I felt no concern one way or the other. I simply +noted that the hour had gone by without bringing my expected visitor, +and went back to my work. + +As a matter of fact, having just made a most gratifying discovery, I was +rather glad that the interruption had not come. I had isolated a new and +wonderful colour--a dark coppery gold that I had yearned for every time +I saw sunlight filtering through brine onto the gently undulating leaves +of reef-rooted kelp. Now I had it; and it was not an accident--I could +do it again. By standing on edge a fragment of one of the big bivalves I +was experimenting with, I discovered that a sharp blow with the side of +my pestle caused the thinnest of chips to fly from its enamel-like +lining. These, glassily translucent as they fell, when reduced in the +mortar gave a warm, almost glowing powder of exactly the hue I sought. +Now if I could only devise a way of mixing it effectively.... + +So well were my innermost faculties set to respond to that expected +knock, that, when it came, not even the mazes of exultant speculation in +which my discovery had set my brain--my outward wits--to wandering, +prevented instant ganglionic reaction. I didn't have to think. That had +all been done an hour before, and the necessary orders given. At the +alarm, these had only to be carried out as prearranged. My legs and arms +simply obeyed the directions that had been registered for them in some +convenient little nerve-knots strung along my spinal column. That +carried me, stepping softly, out of the bathroom, through the bedroom, +and past the middle of the sitting-room, well beyond the direct line of +vision of anyone opening the door from the hall. It was a position from +which I must see anyone coming in before he was able to locate me. The +rest of the order--carried out simultaneously--had to do with laying the +pestle lightly on the bathroom table and thrusting the hand that had +been wielding it deep into the right-hand pocket of my old shooting +jacket. + +In the second or two that it had taken me to reach the middle of the +sitting-room from the bathroom, my wits had relinquished their rainbow +dreams and were back on their workaday job. They it was which, now the +limit of ganglionic action had been reached, stepped in and took +command. It was not from nervousness that I swallowed once and flashed +my tongue across my lips before speaking. I only wanted to be sure my +voice was as firm as I knew the resolution directing it to be. Speaking +sharply, but in a tone not above the ordinary, I said: "Come in, Allen!" + +Among the several little surprises in store for me in the course of the +next few minutes, not the least came when the man on the other side of +the door coughed and cleared his throat as his hand began to turn the +knob. I was just telling myself that such palpable symptoms of +nervousness were very unlike "Slant" Allen to display, when the door +swung inwards and "Slant" Allen stepped into the room. Allen, but not +the Allen I had known. Absolutely nerved to readiness as I was, the +contrast of this flushed, slightly embarrassed, almost diffident young +chap and the ruthless, cold-blooded badman I had made every +preparation--physical and mental--to meet came nigh to taking me aback. +It was like clambering up out of a companionway, all set for a hurricane +sweeping the deck--and finding it calm. For an instant my jaw must have +come near to sagging in the amazement that swept over me. I pulled +myself together quickly, though, and if Allen noticed my momentary +lapse, he gave no sign of it. + +He was the first to speak. "So you were expecting me?" he said, but not +as though greatly surprised. + +"Ra-_ther_," I replied with emphasis. "Look at this!" and I pulled out +the revolver from my right-hand pocket, released the hair-trigger +adjustment, slid the safety-catch, and laid it on the table by the +window. I would not have been guilty of such an obvious act of bravado +had not my preternaturally acute senses told me that, so far as Allen +was concerned at least, there was not going to be any occasion to use +the weapon. That feeling persisted even when, as Allen turned slightly +in the act of closing the door, I noticed a very perceptible bulge where +the flimsy corner of his pongee coat swept his lean right flank. The +instant he entered the room I knew that, whatever motives had brought +him there, the intention of trying to kill me was not among them. +Scarcely less strong were my doubts that I would be able to establish +any valid grounds for killing him. My old sneaking liking for certain +things about the debonair rascal was not dead. + +He grinned appreciatively at the sight of the gun, and then, with a +perfunctory "You don't mind, do you?" stepped over and picked it up. I +watched him without misgivings, my mind still busy adjusting itself to +the new aspect. + +"Was that the toy you used the day you put a bullet hole through the +crown of my new hundred-dollar Payta hat?" he asked, fingering the +exquisitely turned barrel admiringly. "My own fault, of course. I egged +you on by expressing some doubts of your ability to do it from your +jacket pocket. This looks like ..." + +"Same gun--same jacket--new pocket," I cut in laconically; adding: "I +was prepared to repeat the operation just now--with about half a finger +less elevation on the muzzle." + +It was the real old Allen grin that opened out as the significance of +those concluding words sunk home. Not the mocking smirk which had curled +his lips so much of the time, but a good, broad, healthy grin that +betokened genuine inward enjoyment. The fellow--I had remarked it +before--had a really keen and inclusive sense of humour--even inclusive +enough to permit his hearty participation in a laugh that was on +himself. But that irritating sneer (which had died on his lips as a full +realization of Bell's bigness in giving him his choice of going on the +_Cora_ or remaining at Kai came to him)--that sneer, with the amused +contempt for all the world it connoted, did not reappear. Indeed, I am +not sure that I ever saw it again. Had there been some inward change in +the man to dry up the fount of contempt from which that ironic smirk +rose to his lips? I wasn't clear on that point yet: but certainly he had +been profoundly shaken--deeply stirred. + +Save for that expansive grin of real amusement, Allen made no comment on +my implication that I had been waiting to send a bullet--a few inches +below the crown of his hat. "Sweetest balanced little piece of light +artillery I ever trained," he remarked inconsequentially, holding the +revolver at arm's length and squinting along the sights to where his +reversed image menaced back from the depths of a full-length mirror. He +really admired the little gun--I could see that by the way his fist +closed on the checked vulcanite grip, by the caressing touch of his +forefinger on the locked trigger. + +"Made to order by the S. and W. people for my father," I explained, +trying to fall in with his mood as far as I could. If he had come to +talk about revolvers--well, who in Australia knew more about them than I +did? I continued: + +"There's two or three of the Governor's own little gadgets on it, and +one or two I had added myself. The one that I like best is that +safety-catch.... Stranger can't release it till he's been shown how. You +never can tell who may be picking up a gun that's left lying around, you +know. You'll have to admit it would be doubly painful for a man to be +plunked with his own revolver." + +I couldn't for the life of me have refrained from that last little +sally, and Allen seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. His broadened grin +showed an extra tooth or two at each end as he relaxed his extended arm. +"I haven't the least intention of trying to impose that indignity on +you," he laughed. "Besides, you needn't fear that the significance of +that sag in your left-hand pocket has been lost on me. Had me covered +from there all the time, didn't you?" + +"As a matter of fact, I had," I replied, beginning to grin myself; "but +this confounded sawed-off _Mauser_ automatic has an upkick that makes +anything like delicate work quite out of the question. I could wing you +with it from there, no doubt; but the job wouldn't be a pretty +one--nothing that I could take any pride in." + +I laid the stubby automatic on the table where the other weapon had +been, saying that I always did hate the drag of a gun in my pocket. +Then, letting my glance wander to the bulge on Allen's right hip, I +added pointedly: "... especially when I can't see any immediate use +ahead for it." + +Either missing the point of that gentle hint, or else ignoring it +completely, Allen went on playing with the little S. & W. Breaking it +gently with practised hand, he studied with bent head the smooth, easy +action of the automatic ejector. Just a bit more of a bend, and the six +cartridges slid noiselessly forth and fell into his hand. He commenced +shoving them back, one by one. It was the last, or the next to the last, +of the greasy cylinders that slipped from his fingers, struck the floor +and rolled under the table. I remarked with admiration the magnificent +swell of the flexed saddle muscles as the thin _pongee_ tightened over +the bent thighs; the narrow hips, the lean, powerful back, the-- + +"Good God!" + +The voice, hoarse with awe and surprise, was mine; but my own mother +would hardly have recognized it. For an instant my quaking knees almost +let me collapse to the floor; then my faltering inward control stiffened +and clapped the brakes on my skidding nerves. By the time Allen, +startled by my sudden exclamation, straightened up from his scramble +after the still unretrieved cartridge, I had myself fully in hand again. +I could not be sure whether his flush and quick breathing were from +surprise or the stooping posture in which he had been. + +"Did you speak, Whitney?" he asked, after running his eyes over the room +and assuring himself that no one had entered. I held his eyes with my +own till I was sure my voice was steadied. When I spoke, it was +deliberately and evenly. "So Rona came back," I said. + +The train of lightning mental processes by which I had arrived at that +astonishing conclusion had not much of an edge on Allen's quick +comprehension of what had started that train going. For only the +briefest instant his eyes were blank with surprise. Then, with a look of +complete understanding, he clapped a hand to the side of his neck and +began smoothing straight the limp collar of his soft silk shirt. The +ghost of what would have been a sheepish grin flickered up and died +away, and to his face came something of that half-embarrassed, +half-eager look that had sat upon it when he entered the room, as he +said: "Yes, Rona has come back. That was one of the things I came to see +you about. She--we--the both of us have a bit of a favour to ask of +you." + +Quite the master of myself now (and of the situation, too, I thought), I +came back banteringly with: "If it's that red, white and blue neck of +yours you want tied up, I have one of B. and W.'s little First Aid +cases in my bag...." + +It was the shockingly torn and bruised neck that had been revealed when +Allen's collar had slipped back as he stooped to recover the rolling +cartridge that set my swift train of thought going. This must have been +something of the order of it, but electrically rapid of action: +Lacerated neck--old Chinaman at Ponape whose neck was scratched when +Rona ran away from him--Rona a specialist in neck-scratching--probably +scratched Allen's neck (Question--Was it done in the course of one of +the attacks she was known to have made upon him on the _Cora_?)--Could +not have been done on the _Cora_, as they had left her over two weeks +ago and these half-healed scratches were not over five or six days +old.--Hence, Rona had scratched Allen's neck inside of the last week, +and, therefore, could not have drowned herself in Ross Creek a +fortnight ago. Conclusion--Rona has come back. + +It had taken not over a second or two for my quickened mind to run that +devious course, and Allen's must have covered a good part of it in even +less time. The wits of the both of us were keenly on edge. There could +not but have been a fine display of sparks had he been in his wonted +aggressive mood. But he had not come for fighting, physical or mental, +it seemed. He had come to ask a favour--"for the both of us." + +"_For the both of us!_" The significance lurking in those words had +eluded me for a moment in the sudden adjustment my mind was called upon +to make in coming to a realization of the fact that Rona--the lissome +lovely Rona--was not dead--that the bright flame of her was unquenched +after all. But: "_a favour for the both of us!_" A sudden chill checked +and throttled the thrill that had started to flood my being. "_A favour +for both of us!_" "So--Bell dead--'Slant' Allen takes the girl in the +end!" I said to myself. Then, the echo of Kai's estimate of Allen's +track strategy: "An easy starter but a hell of a finisher, 'Slant'. +Don't worry about what he's doing when the starting flag drops; watch +him head into the stretch." "... _head into the stretch_," I repeated to +myself. "Then what about the finish? Is he already under the wire?" + +These thoughts, like the train preceding them, must have flashed through +my mind very quickly, for it was Allen's voice replying to my badinage +about First Aid for his lacerated neck that brought me out of them. + +"The neck's doing very well, thank you," he was saying, "considering +that its windpipe was closed for all of sixty seconds, and that most of +the hide was clawed off from it all the way round." + +That was really very interesting intelligence, but my mind, deep in +another channel, was quite incapable of compassing the significance of +it for the moment. + +"So you've landed the girl after all," I said woodenly, cursing +myself inwardly for the gallery play that had left both guns beyond +my reach. For of course he had deliberately put Bell out of the +running--shouldered him in the stretch.... Reviving suspicions brought +also a realization of what it was up to me to do, now that there was no +longer doubt.... + +"That depends very largely upon you." Allen's quick reply cut short +further conjecture. + +"Depends upon me?" I interrupted incredulously. "What do you mean by +that? Oh, I see. Now that you've put Bell out of the way, perhaps you +think that I, as his closest friend, ought to--to distribute his estate, +so to speak. If that is the way you figure it, let me tell you that all +the distributing you can count on me for will take the form of spraying +lead over your worthless hide. You won't mind handing me one of those +guns, will you? I don't mind which." + +It would have been sheer madness--straight suicide,--that outburst, +had Allen been moved by the least desire to get me out of his way. I +have never been quite able to make up my mind as to whether it was +my instinctive feeling that he had no such desire that prompted me +to take more leeway than prudence--nay, the commonest motive of +self-preservation--would have dictated; or whether I simply lost my +head--let my feelings get away with me. It may well have been the +latter, for shocks had been crowding pretty thick, and it was hardly to +be expected that the gears of my self-control wouldn't slip a cog now +and then under the strain. + +Allen's brows drew together in a black scowl for a brief space, and his +eyes contracted and grew hard as steel. Then, slowly, the scowl smoothed +out, leaving only a deep flush behind it. It was not replaced by his +former look of anxious embarrassment, however. Rather his expression was +one of a serious, controlled determination. + +"That matter of my putting Captain Bell out of the way, as you choose to +phrase it," he said sharply, "is one of the things I called to talk with +you about. Since you've stated so plainly what you intend to do about +it--assuming it's a fact,--perhaps it would be in order to take it up +before--before the other matter. As for these pistols.... Since they're +yours, help yourself to both of them." Stepping back from the table, +well out of reach of the guns, he added: "But I'd rather appreciate it +if you could see your way to refraining from using them until I'm +through with what I've got to say; after that ..." (he gave his +shoulders an indifferent shrug) "it's up to you. Do what you think best +with them. I don't want them--neither one of them." + +"Of course not," I sneered. "Quite naturally, you'd prefer to use your +own. Quite right, too. Get it out of your hip-pocket while you've got a +chance. That's a new chum's way of carrying a gun, anyhow. I'm just a +bit surprised to see a practised killer like Mister 'Slant' Allen +resorting to it. No chance in the world to make an even break of it with +a man with a gun in his side-pocket. Tail of your coat's always getting +mixed up with your fingers just when you want to use them." + +Allen had braced himself after my first taunt came so near to getting +him going, and this second one--galling as it must have been--hardly +moved him. Only the faintest flutter of a corrugation between the brows +told that another scowl had been repressed. The half-surprised tap he +gave to the bulge on his hip--a gesture that would most certainly have +drawn a shot from me had I had a gun in hand--suggested that he really +had forgotten that there was anything there. I am positive that I could +have grabbed a revolver from the table and beaten him to it on the draw. +A move so naive on the part of an old gunman convinced me, even before +he had spoken a word, that I had let my feelings send me off at +half-cock. + +"I haven't a pistol in my hip-pocket," he said evenly. "Never did carry +one there, and wouldn't be likely to begin it if I was going gunning for +a specialist like you. You'll have to take my word for that. Yes, and +since I'm going to ask you to take my word--my unsupported word--for a +number of other things, it may be in order to try to make you believe +that my word, when I give it to you straight, isn't quite--that it isn't +on just the same plane with the rest of my doings." + +I was just a bit surprised that he didn't take out whatever it was that +created that bulge in his hip-pocket, but hardly reckoned it worth while +mentioning. I was fully assured that, far from seeking trouble, it was +the one thing he had steadfastly resolved to avoid. That was enough for +the moment. He was also about to speak of the one thing I was interested +in above all others--the doping of Bell. There was every reason why I +should encourage him to speak of that. The matter of Rona would come up +in due course. He evidently had something to say about her also. + +"Sit down," I said, and extended my cigarette case. + +He declined my fat gold-tipped Egyptians, heavily salted with _kief_ +(another accursed habit I had picked up in Paris), and lighted a slender +Sumatra cheroot from his own case. It was not as a move of precaution (I +was through with all pretence of that now) that I set the big lounging +chair I shoved up for him so that he would sit facing the light. I +merely wanted to watch his face. Yet even that was not necessary to +satisfy me of his sincerity, at least for the moment. His every tone and +gesture was sufficient proof of that. + +"In the matter of the value of my word...." Allen was losing no time in +getting to the point. "In the time you have spent mooching about the +Islands, Whitney, you have doubtless heard me referred to by a good many +hard names, such as pirate, murderer, thief, blackguard, jail-bird, +crook, and so on without end. You've heard all of these, haven't you?" + +"All, and many others," I assented readily. His frankness rather +appealed to me just then. + +"Quite right. Yet I dare say you didn't happen to hear the name of liar +included among the number. If you did, it was used by some cove who had +a grudge against me, and didn't care whether he stuck to facts or not. I +don't mean that I haven't put over a lot of crooked deals in my time, +nor that I haven't come out with a gratuitous falsehood now and then +when it suited my purpose. I don't claim to be a George Washington. But +I do mean just this: that when I have deliberately assured a man that a +thing was, or was not so, I was giving him the dead straight of it to +the best of my knowledge. And that's the way I'm speaking when I tell +you that I haven't a revolver on me, and that that dope I slipped into +Bell's whisky at Kai had nothing to do with his playing out on the +voyage. As for the reason of that ..." + +Allen frowned slightly and ceased speaking for a few seconds. When he +resumed it was not to take up the thread where he had dropped it. + +"I don't know whether you'll have difficulty in believing it or not, +Whitney," he went on after a half-dozen puffs at his slow-burning +cheroot; "but this is the first time since I was packed out of Australia +five years ago that I've tried to explain to anyone anything I've said +or done--tried to make out a case for myself. That was simply because I +didn't give a damn whether anyone approved of it or not. The reason I am +doing it now--well, there are two reasons." + +He puffed quietly for a few moments again, as though gathering his +thoughts. Then he continued: "The first reason is that I owe it to you +for the consideration you showed in the matter of not telling them at +Kai what an ass I'd made of myself. That was dead white, Whitney. I've +got to give it you for that. No one but a thoroughbred could have held +his tongue for five minutes about a thing like that, especially seeing +you were under no obligations of any kind whatever to me. And, for all I +can learn, you've held your tongue for a month. How do I know? Well, I +know about Kai (the only ones I care much about anyway) through a letter +Jackson got off to me from Samarai--after he'd delivered you over to old +'Choppy' Tancred to bring south. Got it the night before I left +Townsville. It wasn't much of a literary effort, but he managed to say a +few things that--things that I knew he wouldn't have said if you had +given them the facts--all the facts about my departure in the _Cora_. As +for Australia.... If you had been dishing up any inside dope in this +nest of old women and busybodies, no fear that it wouldn't have come to +me before this. I know them. Their tongues will waft gossip from +Melbourne to Port Darwin quicker'n the telegraph. My word, don't I know +them!" + +Quickened puffs registered the bitterness of unpleasant memories as +Allen fell silent for a brief interval. "I'm not fool enough to believe +that you kept quiet here out of any regard for me," he went on +presently. "That wouldn't be it, for you haven't any. I don't blame you. +As a matter of fact, I don't seriously care what Australia thinks +anyway. I'm through with them here for good and all. But the Islands are +different. The rest of my life, such as it is, is going to be lived +there, and the only men I have ever had any great respect for are living +there now. So, whatever reason there was behind it, Whitney, I'm deeply +grateful to you for not showing me up in Kai. It was dead white of +you.--I say it again. I've thought of it a good many times since I got +Jack's scrawl, and it was the first thing I intended to speak to you +about today. Only, my slate got a bit upset. That little gun of yours +deflected my thoughts, and then--but you saw how I got forced off on +another tack. + +"The other reason" (Allen hurried on as though anxious to avoid hearing +any observations I might feel impelled to make on what he had just said) +"why I am going to the trouble of trying to clear up your suspicions in +the matter of Bell's death is because, if I don't, there will be no hope +of your granting the request I have come to make of you--and I can't run +any chances of failure with that. + +"I didn't want to kill Bell, but--well, it seems that I was equal to +playing a damn dirty trick to get him out of the way. I won't need to +tell you why. I hate to drag the girl into it, but it can't be helped. +She must have bewitched me, I'm afraid. Not intentionally. Quite to the +contrary, she never gave me a look. I admired Bell--in spite of his +rather standoffish way with me--as much as any man I ever met. That was +the only reason I held myself in about the girl as long as I did. I +don't know just what would have happened if the schooner hadn't come. +Chances are, since I was getting pretty near the limit of my +self-control, I would have blown off some other way. + +"The opportunity which I saw to get rid of Bell in the schooner was too +great a temptation to be resisted. So far as getting him clean away with +the _Cora_ was concerned, I have only my own hot-headedness to blame for +failing. I was simply asking for trouble when I went prancing down to +take over the girl before the schooner even had her hook broken out; and +I found it. No more than I deserved, though." + +Allen paused while the old humorous grin spread over his face for a +moment. Then: "I trust you won't mind if I don't go into details about +how I came to put my head into the noose," he said, still grinning. "It +wasn't very edifying, you know--from my standpoint, I mean. + +"But it would have made no difference even if Bell had got away, while +the girl and I remained behind on the island. She wouldn't have had +anything to do with me anyway--at any rate, not while she had any reason +to hope that Bell was still alive,--and probably she would have knifed +me at the first chance for the part I had in getting him away. She would +have found the chance, too, let me tell you. That girl creates her own +opportunities--there's no holding her once she takes the bit in her +teeth. What she wants to do, that thing she does. And what she wants a +man to do for her, that thing _he_ does. She'll put through what she's +after if she has to go through hell for it--and no minding whom she +takes with her." + +The queer unnerved look on Allen's face drew my first interruption. "So +it's come to that?" was all I said. + +"Yes, it's come to that," he assented, the seriousness of his eyes +belying the whimsical smile on his lips. "But I'll be returning to that +presently. + +"About that dope I gave Bell," he went on--"it was absolutely harmless. +I bought the stuff in Macassar a few months ago, more out of curiosity +than anything else. The old Sultan at Ternate had told me about it, and +I was just a bit interested in its effects. It was pretty concentrated, +though not a hundredth of the strength of the essence from the same +plant that Rona took it for--the deadly poison, which has the same +pungent smell. It was a considerable overdose of the stuff I took one +night that put me on to the fact that, after a short spell of rather +pleasant mental stimulation, it would drug a man to sleep for an hour or +two. Hardly any after-effects at all, except a deuce of a thirst for +liquor for a few days. I had talked about it with Doc Wyndham two or +three times, and am perfectly certain of what I tell you. + +"It was the only stuff I could lay hands on that promised to do the +trick. You see, I was afraid that if Bell wasn't drugged, he would +become suspicious when I failed to return to the schooner, and come to +look for me--perhaps even chuck up the stunt entirely. If he hadn't been +pretty drunk (much the furthest along I ever saw him--probably on +account of the beastly heat--you remember it?) he must have sniffed the +half-dozen drops I put in his half-emptied glass of whisky while he was +conning that old chart he had on the wall. It was a light dose (I've +taken twice that much myself), and though he went under jolly fast--due +to his being so far gone with whisky, probably--he was up and taking +command of the schooner inside of an hour. And you'll remember how he +was going right on ahead getting under way to catch the tide, even +though I hadn't returned. The best nerves I ever saw in a man, bar none, +that chap had. Will of iron and eyes for nothing but the thing he set +out to do. There was a lot in common between him and the girl on that +score. No wonder they were so strong for each other." + +Allen fell silent again, stroking his cheroot between thumb and +forefinger--the habit the correspondents had characterized as a sign of +modesty. "I hope you won't insist on my telling any more about the +voyage than I have to in connection with Bell's death," he said at last. +"I hate to speak of it at all. The thing is almost as much of a +nightmare in memory as it was in fact. You saw how things were on the +schooner when we got away. Well, just picture them getting worse and +worse day by day for--how long was it?--something over a week, I +believe, but it seemed a lifetime. The whisky I kept bracing up with +made it a lot easier for me to stand--kept me from going crazy and +jumping overboard, as so many of the niggers did. But Bell--he didn't +have the whisky--wouldn't have it. Yes, he kept up that mad joke of his +about being a 'soba skippa' to the end. That was what killed him--just +that, and nothing else. It was beyond a being of flesh and blood to do +what he set himself out to do--and live. He tried to (my God, how he +tried!)--and died. + +"I never felt such pity for any living thing, unless it was old Recoil, +my first steeplechaser, when he lived for twenty-four hours after +staving in his chest against a stone wall. I was hardly more than a kid +then. I lay in the straw of his box all that time with his battered, +bleeding frame, and swore I'd kill the first man that tried to shoot +him. Then I pulled myself together and did the humane job myself. But I +couldn't shoot Bell, and he wouldn't shoot himself. That would have been +the easy way out (since he had steeled his will against taking another +drink), but he wouldn't follow that short-cut either. Said he was--how +did he put it?--'goin' to ride the wata wagon all the way to po't, an' +then fall off good and plenty.' Some Yankee expression about keeping +strict teetotal, wasn't it? + +"It got to me worse than the crazy niggers--watching the agony of his +mind and body contorting the muscles of his face, as he tried to hide +what he was going through. The girl was a good deal of help to him for +the first day or two, and he admitted that he was glad she had decided +to join his 'li'l' pa'ty at the last minnit.' But even she failed to +create a diversion as his cravings for whisky became more and more +intense, and he seemed to try to avoid her as much as he could toward +the last--probably because he couldn't hide his suffering from her. I +saw that it was killing him--that he would never last out the voyage on +the course he was heading,--and tried hard to make him see that it was +only reasonable to allow himself at least enough whisky to ease off the +tension on his breaking nerves. But he wouldn't listen to it. + +"'I gave it out official,' he said, 'that I was goin' to keep soba on my +next ship, if I eva got one. An' soba's the wo'd.' To put an end to the +matter, he turned his back on me and went for'ard among the niggers. + +"After that I tried to explain to Rona (I had managed to get on speaking +terms with her as soon as she became satisfied that Bell had not been +poisoned) how things stood, in the hope that she would fall in with a +plan I had for giving him small doses of whisky with the coffee he had +taken to drinking with increasing frequency as the craving for liquor +grew on him. She flew into a temper at once, however. Said that, far +from helping me to give him whisky on the quiet, she would taste every +cup of coffee after it was poured for him in the galley, and then take +it to him herself. She ended by saying that if I tried that trick she +would knife me with her own hands: in fact, rather regretted that she +hadn't done it when she had a chance at Kai. I couldn't for the life of +me see why the girl should take that attitude, when it was so plain that +whisky was the only thing that would pull Bell through; but take it she +did, and that was the end of it, at least as far as co-operation from +her was concerned, I mean. That simply left it up to me to watch my +chances and do the best I could on my own. + +"Bell had insisted on standing watch-and-watch with me from the first, +usually, in his own watch, taking the wheel himself, probably because it +gave him something to occupy his mind--and his hands. (He was beginning +to tear the skin of the palms of his hands from clenching and +unclenching his fingers.) What broke him finally was discovering that he +was no longer fit for a trick at the wheel. His eyes went bad rapidly +under the strain, and it was not long before he could not distinguish +the readings on the compass card. He told me about it at once, but was +confident he could manage to hold a course by the stars. This went on +all right as long as it was clear. But one night, when it was squally +and overcast, he lost the 'Cross' (which had been giving him a shifting +but fairly approximate bearing), and fell back on trying to keep her a +couple of points off the wind. This would have done all right if the +Trade had held from the southeast. But it hauled up to east in a squall, +and Bell, following it around by the 'feel' of it on his face, had the +schooner all but onto the Baluka Reef and shoal at daybreak. I let him +extricate himself to save his feelings; but he knew that both the Bo'sun +and I had twigged what had happened, and why, and it must have been the +realization of the fact that he had become quite useless in navigating +the ship that hastened the final collapse. + +"He came on the following night for his watch--the 'graveyard,' from +midnight to four in the morning,--but made no objection when I stuck on +at the helm. We were closing the tangle of the Barrier Reef by then, you +see, and it wouldn't have done to trust the wheel to a nigger. In fact, +when I went on at eight the previous evening, it was practically the +beginning of the thirty-six-hour trick at the wheel that ended when we +anchored off Townsville. + +"When Bell let me stay on at the wheel at midnight, he showed the first +voluntary signs of giving in, not in the matter of closing his lips to +whisky--nothing could affect his decision on that score,--but to the +other alternative. I mean that he gave up hope of holding on till he had +brought his ship to port--gave up hope of living to the end of the +voyage. Up to that time he had always tried to pass the whole thing off +as a sort of a joke, running on with patter like that about the 'wata +wagon.' But he dropped all that from the moment I refused to give way to +him at the wheel. + +"'Youah quite right, Allen,' he said in a weary sort of voice, and went +over and sat down on the rail of the cockpit. His voice was hollower +still when he spoke again, maybe ten minutes later. 'Allen,' he croaked, +'I've got a hunch I'm not up to pullin' my weight in this heah schoona +any longa. I'm all in--no mo'n so much ballast. Just a dead drag.' + +"I didn't reply to that. I was too much awed--yes, awed--even to urge +him again to take the drink I knew would be the saving of his +mind--perhaps his life. He didn't speak again till after I roused him to +prevent the main boom giving him a crack on the head as I put her about. +(We were working through a nasty patch of broken coral--the outskirts of +the Barrier--but scant seaway and fluky airs.) As he settled back on the +weather rail of the cockpit he said, speaking very slow as though hard +put to control his voice: 'Allen, I make it about two hundred miles to +Townsville by youah noon position. Say thirty-six to forty hours' +sailin', with the wind holdin' up. Do you reckon you an' Ranga--good +man, Ranga--do you reckon you an' he ah up to pullin' it off alone? +I'm--damn it all, I'm seem' hell-west-an'-crooked just as we hit the +dirty navigatin' Allen, take my wud fo' it, this soba skippa stunt ain't +all it's cracked up to be--not by a long shot. I'd rather ha' had the +plague by a damn sight, Allen.' + +"He wouldn't mention the other alternative--whisky--even then, and I +simply didn't have the nerve to take advantage of the opening and +suggest it to him outright. But I did what I thought was the best thing +under the circumstances--waited for a stretch of open sailing, gave the +wheel to a nigger, fished up a convenient bottle of whisky, and set it +down just behind him against the cockpit rail. I didn't speak even +then--just pressed his shoulder, tilted the neck of the bottle against +his hand where it clutched the rail, and went back to the wheel. + +"I had the feeling (and I still have) that I was doing the decent and +humane thing, just as I did when I put old Recoil out of his misery; +though the cases aren't quite parallel of course. But I knew it would +force a crisis one way or the other, and that was what, in all +sincerity, I thought was the kindest thing to do. If Bell drank (though +it well might be that he would go on drinking until he fell in a +stupor), it would surely save his life. What if he did get dead drunk? +He wouldn't be any more useless in navigating the schooner than he was +already. On the other hand, if he still refused to drink, the heightened +temptation of the handy bottle would increase the tension and hasten the +collapse of mind and body, which was now but a matter of a few hours at +the outside. I think you'll agree with me, Whitney, that I did the +kindest thing possible under the circumstances." + +"I wouldn't venture an opinion on that offhand," I temporized; "but, in +any event, it's the thing I would undoubtedly have done myself had I +been in your place. There's no question in my mind on that point at +least." + +"I'm glad to hear you say that," he said warmly; "especially as there +was one person--a rather important person to me--who didn't approve of +my action. + +"Bell's only acknowledgment of what I had done," Allen went on, "was a +sort of disjointed muttering. 'Many thanks, ol' man. Nothin' doin'. Good +intentions. Soba skippa to the fareyewell!' (I think that was the word). +He shoved the bottle along out of easy reach, but didn't even make a +bluff at throwing it over the side. I have an idea that the reason for +his restraint on that score was due to the fact that he remembered I had +told him that the supply was running low (I had been putting an awful +crimp in it), and didn't want to deprive me of it. He was quite +considerate enough to think of that sort of a thing, even with his +senses toppling, as they must have been from the beginning of the watch. + +"It was a moonless night, and heavily overcast, so that I could just +make out the blur of Bell's head and shoulders against the deckhouse +where he sat hunched up on the port rail of the cockpit. But there was a +crack opening up in the beastly binnacle, and through it an inch-wide +welt of light slashed diagonally across his tortured face. One eye, the +side of his nose and half of his mouth were sharply lighted up. The rest +was a shadowy blank. The vivid gash of light, like a magnet, kept +drawing my gaze away from the compass. That one eye, wide and staring, +never blinked in the bright beam. The nostril, distending and +contracting jerkily, was red, like that of a horse that has been +galloped to the point of death. The teeth looked to be clenched through +the lower lip, and blood was trickling over the lighted streak of +clean-shaven chin. Not all his sufferings had made him miss his morning +shave. Almost like a rite with him, that was." + +"Holdover from his Naval life," I suggested hastily, fearful less he +should be tempted to digress upon irrelevant details. + +"I don't know just when it was that the end came," Allen resumed. "I was +expecting every moment that he would jump up and begin his restless +pacings, as he had done on previous nights. But at six bells his +position was still unchanged, and to blot out that beastly slash of +light across his drawn face I threw a piece of canvas over the top and +back of the binnacle, so that the beam from the crack was cut off. Just +as the morning watch was called a nasty bit of a squall was threatening +to bore in and give us a raking, though it finally passed astern of us +and spun off down to leeward. My hands were full for some minutes +preparing against the imminent onslaught, and it was not until the +menace was past and I had taken over the wheel from Ranga (who had +relieved me when I went for'ard to have a squint ahead for myself), that +it struck me that Bell had been paying no attention whatever to all that +had been going on--didn't appear to have shifted at all, in fact. + +"I was just going to call to him to suggest that he go below and turn in +for a spell, when the nigger on the lookout in the bows sung out +'breaka--dead ahead!' It was a near thing, but I managed to sheer off +and avoid grounding on a patch of barely submerged coral, just becoming +visible in the shimmer of the false dawn. As I knew that the main wall +of the Great Barrier must be close at hand to lee, I was chary of +letting her fall off very far in that direction. I had just ordered a +man to stand-by to heave the lead at the first sign of shoaling water on +the starboard bow, when the tail of my eye caught a glimpse of Rona +stepping out on deck from the cabin companion way. (We had sulphured out +the Agent's cabin and made it fairly comfortable for her use. It was out +of the question her sleeping on deck, on account of the incessant +squalls.) She headed straight for Bell, who was still hunched up on the +weather rail of the cockpit, the outlines of his face just beginning to +show in the ashy light of early morning. + +"As her hand touched his shoulder she let out a shrill squeal and +plumped down on her knees beside him. In doing this she must have bumped +the whisky bottle, which had been rolling back and forth on the deck +with the lurches of the schooner. It was with more of a hiss than a +scream that she grabbed it up and flung it straight for my head. Oh, I +should hardly say _straight_," Allen corrected himself, "for Rona +evidently can't throw any better than the run of her white sisters. The +bottle smashed against the wheel, deluged the cockpit with broken glass +and one of my last half-dozen quarts of whisky. If I had not been pretty +sure that Bell was already dead, the fact that the smell of the old +familiar juice welling up from the deck didn't bring a twitch to his +nostrils would have been enough to drive it home to me. + +"Without waiting to observe the effects of her throw, Rona launched +herself right on after the bottle--only a shade better aimed. Unluckily, +the cross-cut she took to my throat carried her right over the +wheel--and at the very instant that the appearance of a second line of +foam down to leeward confirmed my fears about our desperately scant +working room. The instinctive lifting of my right arm to block the +girl's grab at my face came near to bringing disaster. I fended the +clutch from my throat all right, but the weight of her body falling +across the wheel tore the spoke from my left hand and threw the schooner +up into the wind. + +"Ranga's quick presence of mind was all that saved the situation. +Jumping into the cockpit regardless of the broken glass cutting his bare +feet, he grabbed the girl about the waist, disentangled her flying arms +and legs from the wheel, and smothered her struggles against his side. I +threw the wheel back an instant before she jibed, and then, for two or +three seconds, things hung in the balance. Finally, very slowly, she +filled away on the port tack again, and the immediate danger was over. +Had the schooner gone about, nothing could have saved her from running +onto the reef. There was not enough room left in which to wear her +round. + +"Bell must have given up the fight along toward the end of the +'graveyard' watch. I heard him muttering off and on for a while, but the +last coherent words that came to my ears were, not unfitly: 'Nothin' +doin'. Soba skippa to a fareyewell.' + +"That rub with the reef was the nearest squeak we had--though I can't +say that I remember much about the navigation that took us through the +Barrier and on to Townsville. Drunken man's luck doubtless. I was sure +drunk, and no mistake, though both my legs and my head were grinding +right along to the finish--only ceased functioning when there was +nothing more to do. + +"The girl--when Ranga let her go again--went back and settled down by +Bell's body. Wouldn't let anyone come near it. Only left it on the two +or three further occasions that she took to fly at my throat when she +thought I wasn't looking. I didn't want to lock her up (it was inviting +the plague to force her to stay 'tween decks for too long), but managed +to get around the difficulty finally by having one of the crew stand-by +to push in and absorb the impact whenever she made a break in my +direction. She gave up trying after that. Seemed to loathe the touch of +a nigger. But with Ranga it was different. She grew quiet as soon as he +picked her up--something like a kid with its nurse. + +"The big fellow was wonderful, by the way. Always doing the right thing +without waiting for an order, always cool and quiet, always +good-natured. Spent his spare time sitting on the taffrail and peeping +to the sea-gulls on a queer little Malay flute he always carried in his +belt--some kind of hollow stem, full of little wooden balls that gave a +weird sort of ripple to the notes. First and last, Ranga was the man to +whom the bulk of the credit was due for taking the schooner through. I +still feel a bit guilty that I didn't divide the whisky with him. But +perhaps it was best to stow it where I did.... You never know how a +yellow man or a black man will react to the stuff. It's hard enough +guessing with a white man sometimes." + +Allen smiled whimsically as he lighted a fresh cheroot. He was through +with the worst of the story and seemed a good deal relieved. It was +plain enough that he spoke the truth when he said that the memory of it +was still a nightmare, and that he hated to have to speak of it. He said +a few words more in explanation of why he had not buried Bell at sea, +which appeared to have been mainly because he was afraid the girl would +have followed the body over the side. He had no misgivings about keeping +it aboard, he said, as he was quite certain that it carried no plague +infection. He mentioned incidentally, that they had found a lot of stick +brimstone among the stores, and that the thorough smudging they gave the +after quarters with this was probably responsible for the fact that the +plague had not reappeared there. It had been impossible to devise a way +to disinfect the big 'midships hold where the labour recruits were +housed, on account of the more or less crazy condition of all of the +niggers. + +Allen looked at his watch, but went on with his story as though in no +particular hurry. "You're doubtless impatient to hear about the girl's +turning up again," he said. "You've already heard of the rather +remarkable escape she made from the Quarantine Station--Butler, one of +the doctors, mentioned that he told you about it on your steamer. At the +Station it was the theory that the girl had broken out so that she could +kill herself on Bell's grave--that she was more or less off her head +anyhow. That was a mistake, though a natural one. She had just one thing +in view when she clambered out of the mad cell and over the wall: that +was to lie low until I came out and then, watching her chance, try to +make a better job of polishing me off than she had done on the schooner. +She realized that they were on their guard against her at the Station, +and that she might be kept under restraint indefinitely, or at least +until I was out and gone beyond her reach. + +"Her mind was working well enough to make her reckon that that Chinese +shawl (which everyone would have noted) was the one garment she had that +could not fail to be recognized. So--it must have been something of a +wrench for her--she left it on the bank of Ross Creek and went to seek a +hiding place. + +"Luck was with her in the search. Locating the native quarter after +wandering for a while, she circulated around until she came upon the +signs--in Hindustani, I fancy--in front of the shack of an old East +Indian drug seller and money changer. How she got around him I don't +know; but at any rate she persuaded him to keep her there until I was +out of quarantine. She even contrived to get the old rascal to spy out +the refuge I had flown to--a bungalow just out of town, where I figured +I would be a bit quieter than at the hotel. Then she took a hand in the +game herself. + +"It was on the second night after I came out, and I had turned in early. +I had taken no precautions of any kind against attack. Never have +bothered much with that kind of thing. The doors and windows were wide +open. I had a servant--a Chino,--but he was sleeping in his own hut in +the rear of the grounds. + +"It was the window she came in by, though she could just as well have +used the door. I was more than half awake (hadn't been sleeping very +well any of the time since my two-day snooze after landing from the +schooner), lying on my back under the mosquito net, with no covers over +me. It was probably her intention to slip up quietly and get her hands +under the net before disturbing me. She had no knife, by the way. They +had taken that little Malay dagger away after she had tried to stick me +at the Quarantine Station. As she would have had no difficulty in +raising another through old Ratu Lal had she wanted it, I take it that +she felt confident enough of doing the job with her hands. No idle dream +that, either; you know something of the strength of them. + +"I sat up in bed in a dazed sort of way as her shadow darkened the +window. (There was a bit of a moon, shining on that side of the house.) +It must have been my movement under the netting that made her change her +plan. Very naturally, she counted on my shooting first and asking +questions afterwards. It was the rational and proper thing to do, and it +is probably what I would have done had my pistol been handy. But, not +dreaming of an attack (this was the day before old 'Squid' Saunders +turned up and took a jab at me), my gun was in my coat pocket. I have +always carried it there--when I had a coat on--ever since I saw your +little exhibition of pocket gunnery at Kai," he added with a humorous +smile. + +"As I was saying, the stir I made under the mosquito net forced the girl +to speed up her schedule a bit. You saw the jump she made the time she +caught up the schooner at Kai. Well, it must have been about that same +kind of a spring over again. She never touched the floor between the low +window ledge and my bed. Landed right on my chest, bringing down the net +under her weight, and went to my throat with an instinct as sure as that +of a fighting bulldog. She was choking me right through the net before I +really knew what had happened. + +"Of course, taking it for granted that she was dead, I didn't have the +ghost of an idea it was Rona who was sprawling on my chest and shutting +off my wind with steel fingers that seemed closing in to meet at the +base of my brain. I didn't even know that it was a woman. In fact, the +deadly pressure of that grip argued all the other way--that I was being +throttled by a man, and a deucedly powerful one at that. If I did any +speculating at all, I probably figured it as some kind of a thieving +stunt. But a man fighting for his life--and that is precisely what I was +doing--doesn't waste much time in conjecture. My immediate problem was a +simple one. If that grip wasn't broken inside of a minute, it might stay +there forever as far as my shaking it off was concerned. I had been +choked before, and also done a bit of choking on my own account; so I +knew to within a few seconds how long it is before the head of a man +whose wind is shut off begins to reel. + +"Still quite the master of myself, I tried on, very deliberately, the +best thing I knew for breaking a strangle grip--that simple little +_jujutsu_ trick of thrusting your arms between those of the man choking +you, and then throwing back your shoulders and expanding your chest. +Stiffening the chest muscles, I mean--of course you can't expand it with +air while your windpipe is closed. That never fails if you are both on +your feet, and will sometimes work even when you are on your back. Here +the tangle of the net blocked the up-thrust of my arms, and I failed to +get enough leverage to break the hold on my neck. + +"Then I tried my next best bet--that of turning over and over and sort +of unwinding the grip on your throat. I was a shade less confident now. +Time was getting short. I did some jolly active wriggling in trying to +work along far enough to roll over the side of the bed, but again it was +the net that defeated my effort. I was getting a good deal peeved with +that bally canopy; and yet, in the end, it was the very thing that got +me clear. + +"Nine times out of ten a man being held down and choked by another +man--that is, if the choker knows his job--has no chance of doubling up +in a ball and kicking his assailant off by straightening out his legs. +If the man choking you flattens his body closely enough against yours, +you simply haven't the room to start doubling your knees. My assailant +knew his business right enough, but the folds of the net (some of the +corners of which were still clinging to its frame), prevented his +flattening in close to my legs. The sag of the woven bamboo bed springs +also gave me a few inches of leeway. + +"There was nothing deliberate or confident in the jerk with which I +began drawing my knees up against my chest. I had already failed twice +with what I rated as decidedly better bets than that one, and the time +limit was nearly up. My head was already beginning to swim. It was neck +or nothing this heat. The sheer desperation of my effort won out for it. +The push of my knees against the chest of the incubus did not lift it +quite enough to break its hold, but it did enable me to squirm my right +foot up and get it firmly planted in the pit of the creature's stomach. +Then, with all the strength left in me, I straightened out in a terrific +kicking push. + +"In reverse, the flight of the muscular body that had been holding me +down must have been fully equal to that opening jump from the window. +Indeed, I am almost sure that it hit the further wall before it did the +floor. The hold on my neck was the only point of contact that did not +break readily, and there the result was--as you saw a moment ago. As +those steel-claw fingers would not give an inch, they simply ripped out +through the flesh. I can consider myself dead lucky that they didn't +hook onto my windpipe or jugular. Both of them would have come right +along with all the flesh and hide those unrelaxing talons took with +them. + +"It didn't occur to me for a few moments that I might have knocked out +my assailant, and I was a good deal surprised when he neither returned +to the attack nor made any break to escape. The laboured gasping in the +darkness on the other side of the room quickly told me the reason, +however. I had knocked the wind out of him with my mighty kick. I knew +that spasmodic gasping for air meant that I wasn't going to be greatly +troubled for a minute or two at least, so took my time about fumbling +for my automatic and lighting the lamp. + +"A bit dazzled by the light for a moment, I took the lanky yellow figure +huddled up against the wall to be a Hindu coolie. The thin legs and arms +were like those of the East Indian indentured labourers of the sugar +plantations, and the two or three yards of white cloth trailing off +along the floor suggested a Madrassi waist and shoulder rag. +Presently--for that one rumpled wrapping was all she had worn--I saw +that it was a woman; and then--but as a matter of fact I think that the +girl spoke before I recognized her face. + +"'"Slant,"' she piped out in that bird-like chirrup of hers; '"Slant," I +guess I make a meestake. 'Scuse me, ple-ese, "Slant."' + +"Could you beat that for cheek? Trying to tear a man's throat out one +minute, and asking him to 'ple-ese 'scuse' her for it the next. And what +do you think of a man who would tumble for it, especially after the way +she had made me jump through and roll over at Kai? But that's Rona; yes, +and that's me. I tumbled, and--I may as well admit it--I am still +tumbling. + +"Having the girl turn up like that--after I had been thinking of her as +dead for a week or two--didn't give me quite the shock it would have if +that voice had come out of the darkness without my seeing her first. It +was a deuce of a surprise even as it was; but, when all is said and +done, a pleasant one, in spite of the rather startling way she chose +to--to re-materialize. I was glad to find that she was alive, whether it +meant anything more to me than that or not. + +"We didn't talk much that night--there wasn't much talk left in either +of us as a matter of fact. Rona continued to croak and hiccup, while my +own swollen vocal chords smothered every other word I tried to get past +them. I managed to assure Rona that I quite understood her feelings +against me (though I didn't entirely, and don't yet), and begged her to +give me a chance to explain the way Bell had come to his finish. She +admitted that she had begun to believe that she might have been hasty in +her decision and action, and said she would be glad to hear what I had +to say. She told me where she was in hiding and asked me to come there +in the morning; also to do what I could to square her with the +quarantine authorities for breaking out of the Station ahead of time, +and on no account to let anything happen to old Ratu Lal for giving her +refuge. She seemed to take it as a matter of course that I would do +these things. You'd have thought I was some sort of a _mayordomo_ taking +orders. + +"It was not very late and, luckily, the bungalow (which Ralston had +occupied himself at times) had a telephone. I ordered a closed carriage +sent out, and also got the Quarantine Station and arranged for one of +the doctors--Butler, the chap you talked with on the steamer--to come to +the landing and wait for me to pick him up. They had been very decent to +me at the Station, and I wanted to avoid having to explain things to a +strange doctor. + +"Rona tied my neck up for me--very handily, too--and when the carriage +came I bundled her in and gave the driver the direction which carried +him along the edge of the 'foreign quarter.' I dropped her at a corner +not far from Ratu Lal's joint, promising to look in on her early the +next morning. Butler was waiting for me at the landing when I got there, +and I told him about Rona's coming to life, and its sequel, as we drove +back to the bungalow. After he had dressed my neck I told him what I +wanted him to try to do for me and sent him back to the landing, where +his boat had hung on for him. + +"Rona was looking a bit white about the gills when I called the next +morning, and complained that her stomach 'got mad' every time she sent +food down to it. I told her that she still had the best of me, as I +didn't expect to be able to get any food down to my stomach for a couple +of days yet. That seemed rather to buck her up, and she had a good laugh +over it. Then we got down to business, and had an hour's yarn in the +drug-scented quiet of old Ratu Lal's back room. + +"As my Malay is fairly good, we talked without difficulty. I told her +more or less what I have just told you about Bell and why I had given +him the whisky. She said, rather grudgingly, that she thought she could +understand why I had done as I did. Then I said a few things +about--well, about my personal feelings toward her. Finally, I asked her +point-blank if she would go back to the Islands with me. Told her she +could live anywhere she wanted, and in any way that she wanted. I didn't +say that I was willing to marry her, because (since, if she has any +religion at all, it's Hindu or Mohammedan) I felt that would make no +difference to her one way or the other. + +"Am I really willing to marry her?" (It was the lift of my eyebrows that +suggested the query to Allen, for I did not speak.) "Well, yes, I think +I am, if she made that a condition. But I don't think the question is +one likely to arise. + +"The girl took in the whole thing without giving away by word or look +how it impressed her. When I had finished, she coolly suggested that I +run along and square matters up with the quarantine people about her and +Ratu Lal. She added that she would be obliged if I'd look up her Chinese +shawl for her. She also started to speak about her dagger, but changed +her mind and said to let that go for the present. As for what I'd been +telling her.... Well, perhaps if I could see my way to dropping in again +toward evening she might have an answer for me. High and haughty as a +Sultana, she was, sitting cross-legged on a mat and pulling away at one +of Ratu Lal's big 'hubble-bubbles.' + +"I went to the Quarantine Station straightaway, and, in spite of the red +tape tangling up a thing of that kind, managed to get them to agree to +discharging the girl without anything more than a perfunctory call from +a doctor to certify her free of plague. That done, the rest was easy. I +told the story--omitting, of course, the girl's attack upon me--at the +Police Station, and they agreed not to arrest Ratu Lal as long as the +quarantine authorities were satisfied and lodged no complaint against +him. They said they were only too glad of a chance to do me a favour. +Then I got them to let me have the shawl, and begged them to keep the +news of the girl's turning up quiet as long as they could. + +"'Squid' Saunders's little diversion that afternoon gave the pressmen +something else to take up their minds, and the matter of the missing +girl was forgotten, at least for the remainder of my time in Townsville. +The fact that she did not drown herself must have leaked out since, but +they probably haven't been enough interested in it--now that the hunt +has followed me here--to wire it south. + +"When I broke away from the official reception committee and dropped in +on Rona at the end of the afternoon--impatient enough, I can tell +you--she gave no sign that the matter I had come for an answer about was +in her mind at all. She grabbed the Chinese shawl out of my hand with a +yelp of delight, but almost dissolved in tears when she saw how the +embroidery had been smudged and ruffled in her scrambles over trees and +walls and ditches the night she escaped from the Quarantine Station. You +may remember that it was a big peacock that was embroidered on the +shawl--pretty nearly life-size--rather a fine piece of work, it always +struck me. Well, ignoring me entirely, she spread that old peacock out +over her breast--something in the way she used to display it when she +wore the shawl in Kai--and began chirping and crooning and muttering to +it like a dove to its nestlings. She would nuzzle into the plumage, +smoothing the ruffled feathers with her lips, just like she was the old +peacock preening himself. Every little bit of torn floss she would try +to put back where it came from. + +"Stiff with funk, I sat quiet until she had gone all over the moulting +old bird, but when she started in working down from his crest again, I +thought it was time to remind her of my presence. I had never sat around +waiting on anybody like that before, Whitney; even my old nurse couldn't +make me do it. So I cut in and told her that I had arranged things at +the Quarantine Station--that she wouldn't need to go there again; also +that old Ratu Lal need not worry any longer about a visit from the +Police. Incidentally, I mentioned that I was making him a present of ten +pounds to show my appreciation of his consideration in not claiming the +reward offered for her. + +"She took no notice of anything I said. Just went on crooning and +preening and stroking down the ruffled feathers, giving a little sob +every now and then as she came to a place where they were badly mussed +up. Then I went off on another tack, saying that I knew of a shop in the +town that carried Chinese embroideries, and suggesting it was possible a +skilled needle-worker might be found there competent to undertake the +restoration of the bird's damaged plumage. She deigned to cock up an ear +to listen to that, but her only reply was a disconsolate shake of the +head, as though anything like proper restoration was a matter beyond all +hope. + +"That quieted me for a while, but after twirling my thumbs through ten +or fifteen minutes more nuzzling and crooning, my patience gave out. I +jumped up to the accompaniment of a good lively string of oaths, and +asked her point-blank if she had made up her mind about the matter we +had been speaking of in the morning. She broke into a ripple of smiles +at that, and cooed sweetly: 'Ye-es, I think 'bout that plenty, "Slant."' +Then she slipped into voluble Malay and laid down a perfectly simple and +direct proposal, on the fulfilment of the conditions of which she was +willing to return to the Islands with me. It was not what I had +expected,--not what anyone would have dreamed of expecting under the +circumstances; yet ridiculously easy of fulfilment in the event a +certain third party fell in with the idea. That third party is you, +Whitney. That's the main thing I have come to see you about. Everything +is up to you now. Perhaps that will make it easier for you to understand +why I rattled on for an hour or more in the hope of putting myself right +with you about Bell. I've never tried to justify myself with any living +man before, and probably will never do it again. But it had to be done +this time, Whitney, and I hope I've been successful." + +My nod might have meant almost anything, but I was not unwilling that +Allen should interpret it in his favour. As a matter of fact, he had +convinced me wholly that--after the abortive attempt at drugging in +Kai--he had played straight with Bell. As for Rona--well, if he was also +ready to play straight with her (and he had just about convinced me on +that point, too), what was it to me? If she could forget Bell so easily, +it was her own affair. If Allen were trying to carry her off against her +will--that would be a different matter of course. But he was not. +Plainly it was the girl herself who held the whip hand. The whole thing +was a bit obscure yet, but what Allen had still to say might do +something to clear it up. Without committing myself by more than that +one nod, I waited for him to go on. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + A BAD MAN'S PLEA + + +The expression of nervous anxiety I had noticed several times since he +came was on Allen's face again as he started to speak. "It's a queer +enough proposition," he began. "You see, it's like ..." He hesitated, +stopped, got up and walked to the window, where he stood for a few +moments, frowning and biting the end of his cheroot. Suddenly he turned +to me with: "Whitney, what do you say to a bit of a turn in the fresh +air? I've been talking more than I'm used to, and this stuffy room of +yours is getting on my nerves. We might walk out through the gardens to +the Domain. I can tell you all that I have to tell out there." + +I did not need to look at my watch to know that it was getting on toward +five o'clock. Only the absorbing interest of Allen's narrative had +prevented my becoming conscious of that fact before. My own nerves were +less under control now, and the inevitable end-of-the-afternoon +restlessness was surging strong upon me. But I was anxious to hear Allen +out, and no reason occurred to me why it should not be in the open air. +If there was any decision to be arrived at, that could be made on the +morrow, or whenever I felt up to it. + +"Right-o, Allen," I cried; "I'll be glad to get out myself. I shall want +to be back in about half an hour though." + +I was grateful for his restraint in not greeting that last with an +indulgent smile, for I knew that he fully understood what it was that +focussed my interest upon five o'clock. It was very evident that the man +had retained all the finer instincts of a gentleman, little opportunity +that he had had to exercise them in the last five years. + +I got my hat and stick, and, feeling sure I would have no use for them, +put both the revolver and the automatic pistol into the drawer of the +table upon which they had been lying. I was rather glad of the chance to +show Allen that I had confidence in him to that extent anyhow. + +Anxious to avoid recognition, Allen pulled on a pair of dark spectacles +and drew the brim of his Panama low down over his forehead. Turning out +of crowded Pitt Street, he removed the spectacles, and as we passed the +entrance of the Botanical Gardens took off his hat and fanned his brow +with it as he walked. He had not spoken so far, but with the deep breath +he inhaled as he felt the springy turf underfoot his restraint passed +from him. + +"It's a great relief to get clear of those damn walls and pavements," he +said fervently, opening his coat to let the cool breath from the Bay +strike his chest. "I can't get used to them again. I've been free of +them too long now. But I'm finished with them for good, I hope." Then, +as we came out upon a broad path: "Bear away to the left, if you don't +mind. I want to take a squint at that bunch of palms as we pass." + +As we came abreast of a big bed packed with a riot of dense tropical +growths, he pulled up and appeared to be searching for something. "Ah, +there she is!" he ejaculated presently, and pushed in close to a queer +little dwarf palm, which straggled drunkenly on a half-dozen spindling +legs set something like those of a camera tripod. Pulling up the stamped +metal marker, he gave it a quick glance and then handed it to me with a +grin. "The fruits of my first and only dip into botanical research," he +remarked. "What do you think of it?" + +"_Pandanus Bensoni Allensis_," I read in large letters, and below: +"Habitat: Portuguese Timor. Very rare. The only other catalogued +specimen is in the Royal Dutch Gardens at Buitenzorg, Java." + +"So that _Allensis_ stands for you, does it?" I said, not a little +impressed, as I handed him back the metal disc. Then added: "And racing +and polo cups weren't the only objects you collected." + +"The merest accident," he replied. "I had always liked plants and +flowers, ever since my nurse used to wheel me down this very walk in my +pram. I suppose that gave me an interest in the tropical growths of the +Islands, after they packed me off there. I thought this little fellow +looked a bit on the unusual when I chanced upon it one morning in a low +valley back of Deli; so I dug it up and shipped it to Sydney direct on +the China Line steamer, which touches in there. It turned out to be a +real find. Benson of Kew Gardens, the great authority on tropical palms, +described it, and tacked my name on as the discoverer. The old cove's +letter contained the only kind words addressed to me from the outside +world in the last five years. And now look at them ..." + +I had come to expect that note of bitterness in Allen's voice every time +he spoke of the past, and especially of his "transportation" to the +Islands. He evidently thought that he had been badly treated; too badly +for even the present wave of frantic adulation to make atonement. He was +through with it for good. Several little things he had let drop +indicated that. + +The incident of the palm was interesting in throwing an illuminative +crosslight on the gentler human side of a man who had generally been +rated as without either gentleness or humanity. So, also, was the very +evident appeal to Allen's sense of natural beauty made by the matchless +panorama of the Bay as it unfolded to us from the far end of the point. + +We had skirted the Naval anchorage of Farm Cove, picked our way along +the path below the ledges where benighted "sundowners" were wont to boil +their "billys" and spread their "blueys" in the shallow wave-worn caves, +and climbed up through the gums to the rocky lookout on the outermost +tip of the sharply-jutting point. The clocks in the town behind us began +chiming the quarters heralding the hour of five, and presently, on the +first of the heavier strokes, the flotilla of trans-bay ferry-boats slid +from their slips at the inner curve of the horseshoe of the Circular +Quay and "fanned" out on their divergent courses to points on the +opposite side of Port Jackson. + +"That sight has never failed to quicken my pulses from the time I used +to wait and watch for it as a kid down to today," Allen said with almost +a thrill in his voice. "It is the one picture that has remained clearest +in my mind all these years I've been--shut out from it. Did you ever +read Henry Lawson's lines to 'Sydney-Side,' written from somewhere in +the West, I believe? Something like this they go: + + "'Oh, there never dawned a morning in the long and lonely days, + But I thought I saw the ferries streaming out across the bays-- + And as fresh and fair in fancy did the picture rise again + As the sunrise flushed the city from Woollahra to Balmain: + + "'And the sunny water frothing round the liners black and red, + And the coastal schooners working by the loom of Bradley's Head; + And the whistles and the sirens that re-echo far and wide + All the light and life and beauty that belong to Sydney-Side.'" + +"A sentimentalist, too," I muttered to myself, the surprise of that +revelation checking for a few moments the rising tide of my +absinthe-hunger. + +Allen led the way back to where a flat ledge of rock made a rough +natural seat. "'Lady Macquarie's Chair,'" he explained, motioning me to +sit down. "Named from the wife of a former Governor who was supposed to +slip away out here and enjoy the view. The Domain runs right back behind +the Government House, you know. I always used to mooch along out here +for a look-see every time I got a chance, partly for the fine prospect +of the Bay and partly for the comprehensive visualization it permitted +of what I might call 'The Rise and Fall of the House of Allen.' + +"Haven't you an expression in the States to the effect that it's 'three +generations from shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves'? Well, here in +Australia we put the same natural law of evolution in the form of a +conundrum and answer. It goes: 'How long does it take for an arrow to +become a boomerang?' The answer varies, but for the 'House of Allen' it +is: 'Four generations.' + +"The arrow, you understand, is the 'Broad Arrow' that marked the +transported convicts, while the boomerang merely suggests something that +rises, circles and returns to the point of departure. Well, from this +place where we sit I can trace the full circle of the 'arrow-cum +boomerang-cum arrow' of the Allen quiver. Look! I'll show you. Follow me +closely. + +"Over there," he said, pointing seaward and easterly, "are the Heads, in +through which sailed the brig bearing Jim (alias 'Crab') Allen, convict, +with a few hundred more of the scum of London, to the shores of +Australia. That is, I've always liked to fancy my distinguished +progenitor sailed in through the Heads, though it's quite possible that +the brig beat around into Botany Bay direct. Now" (he pointed westerly +to where the Paramatta wound out of sight between green hills) "at the +end of that deep cove over there is the slaughter house where the +convict's son, James Allen, dealt in hides and hoofs and horns and laid +the foundation of the family fortune, the fortune that wasn't seriously +dented when the convict's grandson gave a hundred thousand pounds to a +drought-relief fund and drew down a Baronetcy. That big red-brick pile +among the trees on Darling Point" (Allen was pointing east again) "is +the mansion of the late Sir James Allen, Bart., and now owned by his +eldest son, the New South Wales Agent in London. Old Sir James' second +son, Hartley, was born in the south wing of that unsightly heap of red +bricks. + +"And here" (this time he turned and pointed south where a sharp +dagger-blade of inlet plunged deep into the heart of Sydney's lowest +slums) "is Wooloomooloo, where young Hartley Allen, descending from the +soft refinements of Darling Point, found his level, organized his own +'push' of rock-throwing, head-smashing larrikins and completed the +social circle. The cycle of metamorphosis had begun its round. I was the +throwback, Whitney. Old 'Crab' Allen, the transported convict of +Houndsditch, lived again in young Hartley Allen, whom most people +thought of as a racing man and polo player, but who had all the natural +qualifications of an out-and-out crook. + +"I can trace all of my little moral obliquities, Whitney, back to old +'Crab,' and, everything considered, I think he would rate me as rather a +credit to his name, whatever contempt he might have had for my +comparatively law-abiding father and grandfather, to say nothing of my +pillar-of-the-state elder brother. 'Crab' was transported as a +consequence of his persistent disregard of his fellow townsmen's rights +to their lives, wives and silver plate. I--well, I never did care much +for silver plate." + +All this would have been intensely interesting to me an hour earlier, +but now the fervour of my longing for my "_solitude a trois_" (as I was +wont to call my seance with the long green bottle and the glass of +cracked ice) was getting beyond control. The flowing lines of the +reaches of cove and inlet glowing in the slanting light of the declining +sun were becoming jerky and jagged and intershot with dazzling little +spurts of light like one thinks he sees after receiving a crack on the +head. The evening breeze lapped clammily about my chest and I fumbled +clumsily with the buttons of my coat, trying to shut out the chill. + +"I ought to have been back at the hotel before this," I mumbled, getting +to my feet. "You had something more to tell me, hadn't you? You can do +it as we walk back. I've got to be going now." + +By this time I wasn't in a state to observe things very carefully. +Undoubtedly (as I've thought it over since) Allen had been stalling to +gain time and screw his nerve up to advancing the plan he had in mind. +This being so, it must have jarred him a bit to have me call the turn so +suddenly. I don't remember whether his face showed consternation or not. +The one thing I recall was the quick movement of his hand to that hump +on his right hip. + +I did not recoil an inch. I am sure of that, for I felt no apprehension. +I was beyond apprehension--save over delay. But Allen's hand came back +empty. "I'll tell you at once," he said brokenly. "But please sit down. +Don't go just yet. We'll have to come to a decision straightaway." Then, +seeing I was turning to go: "It's just this: Rona wants you to paint her +picture--on the schooner--the _Cora_. Wants a picture done of the whole +layout--ship, Bell, her, me, Ranga, niggers, everything. Says she'll +pose for it on the schooner. Says I must pose too. Seems to be bitten +with the idea of perpetuating the event for posterity, or something of +the kind. Crazy scheme, but she's set her heart on it. Says when it's +done, if she likes it, she may go back to the Islands with me. Nothing +certain for me, but it's a chance and I've got to make the most of it. +Will you do it, Whitney? She says you've always wanted to paint her +picture, and now she's all for it. You won't turn it down, Whitney?" + +The incongruity of "Slant" Allen in the role of a plaintive pleader +struck me with scarcely less astonishment than his strange and +unexpected request. I was, however, totally unfit to cogitate upon +either just then. + +"I'll think it over and let you know tomorrow," I said dully. "Got to go +now." + +"It has to be decided here and now, once and for all," Allen answered +firmly. "Here!--" This time there was no hesitation in the movement of +his hand to the hip-pocket hump. When it came back it was holding a fat +stubby flask--one of the thermos type, just coming into general use at +that time. + +"I know what's calling you away, Whitney," he said steadily, unscrewing +the top of the flask and pouring into it a bright green liquid with a +familiar smell and sparkle. "On the off chance that we might be detained +beyond the hour when you're used to depending upon it, I had this cooled +at the Marble Bar--old hangout of mine--and brought it along with me. +Don't use the stuff myself, but I know the hooks it throws into a man +who does use it. Drink hearty!" + +He handed me both the brimming screw-top and the flask itself. The +contents of the former might have been drugged heavily enough to kill a +horse for all I cared. It was absinthe beyond a doubt, and cold enough +to frost the outside of the little nickled cup that held it. I gulped it +down hungrily; replenished and repeated. The third cup I drank less +greedily, letting my eyes rove slowly where the jerkily jagged zigzags +of hill and headland and foreshore were smoothing into a softer fluency +of contour. Sipping the fourth cup, I unbuttoned my coat to give more +intimacy to the caress of the milk-warm evening breeze. + +"Not bad stuff, Allen," I breathed at last. "Very good of you to think +of it. What was it you wanted me to do just now?" Five minutes later I +had promised to meet "Slant" Allen at the railway station in time to +catch the nine-thirty train for Brisbane, en route Townsville. + +It appeared that Rona's ultimatum had stipulated that Allen was to be +back in Townsville with me, ready to begin arranging for the picture, +inside of ten days. The only northbound boat, the _Waga Tiri_, which +would arrive within the limit, had already left Sydney but could be +overtaken at Brisbane by entraining at once. Allen had booked sleepers +for the express and wired for cabins on the steamer before he called on +me at the _Australia_. There was nothing left to do but throw together +what things I wanted and get to the station. + +It was rather a wrench, checking myself after getting all poised for +flight with the "Green Lady," but not so hard as it would have been had +I really "got off the ground." The contents of Allen's flask were hardly +more than a strong bracer. Once I got back to the hotel and into my +packing, it was easy going, especially as my enthusiasm was mounting for +the work ahead. To have Rona for a model at last! And for such a +picture! + +The dramatic appeal of the thing grew on me with every passing minute. +It was not, to be sure, quite the kind of a work I was best prepared to +do. With my ambition to become a marine painter, I had gone in more for +colour than for anatomy and drawing; but I was still confident that I +could make good with anything that gripped my imagination strongly. And +"The Saving of the Black-birder" (I had already given it a tentative +name) fairly took me by the throat. I would not fail with it. Nay, more, +I would triumph. Perhaps--why not?--Paris! Yes, "The Black-birder" +should open a short-cut to my goal. The rails beneath the wheels of the +speeding Brisbane Express were clicking _black-bir-der_--_black-bir-der_ +when I dropped off to sleep that night somewhere along toward the +Queensland boundary. + +That the morrow should bring some reaction from this fine frenzy was +inevitable, but it was a comparatively slight one. That Allen had +deliberately planned to draw me away and take advantage of my weakness +for absinthe to gain my intervention in his favour was evident enough. +Indeed, the consummate manner in which he turned the trick argued an +almost pathological intimacy with the reaction of the insidiously subtle +essence of wormwood upon the human brain. But I did not hold this +heavily against him. It was plain that he had only done it to play safe +in a matter respecting which he did not dare to take any unnecessary +chances of failure. I could not but admit to myself that I would +probably have fallen in with the plan ultimately in any event. There was +no disloyalty to my friend in making him (as I intended to do) the +central figure in a picture that I hoped would become famous in two +hemispheres. On the contrary, what greater tribute was there I could pay +to his memory? If Rona cared to flaunt that memory by going off to the +Islands with Allen, it was her own kettle of fish. Besides, she had not +gone yet; didn't even appear to have committed herself definitely in the +matter. + +To minimize explanations and the possibility of complications, Allen and +I had agreed to defer wiring our Sydney friends of our departure until +after we were aboard the _Waga Tiri_ in Moreton Bay. His message to the +Chairman of the Reception Committee, and mine to Benchley at my +Exposition, went ashore on the tender that brought us off, and the +steamer was under way before they could have been put upon the wires. It +was not until the next northbound boat brought the Sydney papers to +Townsville that we learned what a wave of surprise and speculation had +been started by our joint hegira. + +In the course of the voyage Allen told me some few further details of +developments in Townsville. Before his departure he had managed to +induce Rona, for her own comfort, to move her headquarters from Ratu +Lal's joint to the Medical Mission of the London Bible Society. The head +surgeon of the Mission he characterized as "a good old sport" he had +knocked up against in the Straits and the Dutch Indies. He was just like +an ordinary missionary to look at, but redeemed in "Slant's" eyes by a +real love of horses, and even--very much on the quiet--a shrewd interest +in racing. "It's in his blood. He can't help it," Allen explained +laconically but comprehensively. + +Explicit instructions had been left at the Mission that Rona was not to +be worried about her spiritual future. She was to be just a "straight +boarder" until Allen's return. She was well provided with money, as he +had seen to having everything Bell had with him at the time of his death +deposited to her account at a local bank. This had included eighty gold +sovereigns, found in a money-belt around Bell's waist, and some hundreds +of Chilean silver _pesos_ he had brought off to the _Cora_ in a canvas +sack. + +Ranga had been put up at the Sailors' Home. There had been a flat +refusal to receive him at first, on account of his colour, but this was +promptly withdrawn when it was found the request came from Allen, whom +the town was going pretty strong on delighting to honour just at that +juncture. Allen, who seemed very fond of the big fellow, also saw that +the latter was comfortably provided with money. + +Allen did not speak again of the proposed picture until the steamer was +nosing up to her buoy in Cleveland Bay. Then, after inquiring if I had +everything I needed to go ahead with, he intimated that he would +probably find Rona fretting to get things under way. "She seemed to have +some wild sort of an idea," he said, "that the whole thing would be done +on the schooner--that we all might move out there, bag and baggage, and +make it our head-quarters until the picture was completed. She even +wanted me to go out to that plague-rotten wreck with her and look the +ground over before I left. I had no time for it, of course, and am jolly +glad I didn't. Can't see what the good of it would have been anyhow. I +was hoping I had seen the last of the damned hulk, though I suppose I +can stick it for an hour or two in a pinch. I fail to see what she's +driving at, but whatever it is you may as well make up your mind that +she will have her way about it." + +I assured him that the picture would probably be mostly studio work as +far as he was concerned, though I myself might want to sketch a few +details on the schooner. It might save time, however, I suggested, if +the whole lot of us went aboard before I began work so I could figure +out a tentative grouping and get a general idea of the composition. Then +I could make notes and sketches of whatever parts of the schooner would +be included, and be ready to work on the individual figures as soon as I +rigged up a studio. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + THE SCENE OF THE FINAL DRAMA + + +We spent the night at the hotel and went together to call on Rona at the +Mission the following morning. The change in the girl was startling, far +too great to be accounted for by the baggy Mother Hubbard that had +replaced the close-clinging _sarongs_ and _sulus_ in which I had grown +accustomed to seeing her at Kai. Her face was thinner and the former +peach-like bloom of her cheeks had given way to a dusky sallowness. The +curve of her lips had flattened--and hardened; hard, too, was the fixed +stare of her great sloe eyes. To a stranger the pucker of concentration +between her eyebrows might almost have suggested sullenness. The lines +about her eyes and mouth, which spoke to me of suffering, might have +seemed to another as stamped there by hate. She was still beautiful, but +in a new way. It was a wild, fluttered sort of loveliness that haunted +rather than allured. The woman before me could never "sit Buddha," I +told myself; those dreamy spells of repose had not punctuated her +present life with intervals of Oriental peacefulness. + +Decidedly reserved in her manner toward Allen, Rona tried to be warm in +her greeting to me, but quickly showed signs of restraint and +embarrassment. She became even more ill at ease when "Slant," after +genial old Dr. Oakes invited him out to see a new saddle horse that had +just arrived from Singapore, excused himself and left us alone. She +sheered off so sharply from my first mention of the name of Bell, and +became so palpably nervous at a couple of attempts I made to lead round +to him by degrees, that I gave up trying to induce her to speak of him +out of sheer pity. Even my inquiry after the health of "Peeky" of the +embroidered shawl drew only a weary little smile and a sad shake of her +riotous tumble of blue-black hair. + +She was ready enough to talk about the picture, though even in that +connection I was at once conscious of a lack of real enthusiasm on her +part. She seemed anxious to get it started, however, and said she +supposed we would be going to live on the schooner in a day or two. She +even confessed to having worried a good deal for fear the _Cora_ would +be broken up by a storm before the picture was made. When I told her +that we would not need to live on the schooner, and perhaps would not +have to make more than one or two short visits to it, she appeared a +good deal put out for a few moments. She scowled angrily and started to +speak; then thought better of it, bit her lip and held her tongue. She +appeared a bit mollified when I said we would make our first visit, to +plan the picture, just as soon as the quarantine people would disinfect +the schooner for us. (That this had not been done yet I had already +learned through 'phoning to the Station the night before.) She observed +impatiently that she thought disinfection was a needless precaution, and +I had to explain that it was not a matter of precaution at all on our +part; that it was against the law for anyone to board a ship that had +carried plague until it was disinfected, and that if we tried it on the +_Cora_ the whole lot of us would probably be clapped in jail and +quarantined afterwards. + +She softened a little as I got up to go, and her "Next time I show you +'Peekie,' Whit-nee--'Peekie' is a ver-ee sick bird," sounded almost like +old times. The hand she gave me was hot and dry but unshaking, and the +almost cutting grip of it tense with nervous force. I noticed that her +finger nails, though trimmed closer than of old and no longer stained, +were still of unusual length. + +I found Allen, his face flushed with enthusiasm, putting the doctor's +new colt up and down the sward before the Mission chapel in sharp bursts +of terrific speed. The animal, Oakes explained to me, had been given to +him by a petty Rajah of the Federated Malay States as a token of his +appreciation of the doctor's success in removing a troublesome appendix +from a favourite dancing girl some months previously. It was a chunky +bay gelding, only his small head, full neck and a certain trimness of +hock bearing out Oakes' claim that he was out of a Mameluke imported +direct from Bassorah by the Sultan of Johore. For the rest he favoured +his Timor dam, and looked built for endurance and handiness rather than +speed. The instant Allen was on his back, however, his sure instinct +told him that the powerful little beast had swiftness as well as staying +powers, and he was already itching to put his judgment to the test. A +week later, having quietly entered him in the race of the day--the +Planters' Handicap--at the Townsville midsummer meet, he rode the +gelding himself and gave the local betting public the worst jolt in +North Queensland track annals by winning at two-hundred-to-one. Every +pound that the wily Allen cleaned up on the race went to build the good +Doctor Oakes, shortly transferred to Fiji, the largest and best equipped +Medical Mission in all of Polynesia. The full story of what the winning +of that race meant to the game old missionary with the sporting blood +has yet to be written. + +My plan of visiting the _Cora_ to make a preliminary study of the +"Black-birder" met with an unexpected check. The quarantine people had +readily consented to give the schooner a rough disinfection, one that +would make it quite safe for us to board her as long as we kept clear of +the holds, which would require more drastic treatment. Before the +formaldehyde squad got away, however, several cases of smallpox were +reported in the native quarter, and all the available disinfecting +apparatus was called upon for use there. It would be at least a week or +ten days, we were told, before an outfit would be free for the _Cora_. + +Personally, I didn't mind the delay in the least; for one reason, +because Rona's strange mood had quenched my initial surge of ardour for +the picture, and, for another, because I had still to find a suitable +place in which to work. Allen seemed to be worrying very little over the +forced wait. "I've laid my bets to win or lose, and I'll be there to +cash in after the finish," he said philosophically. He spent most of the +time in the saddle, getting out mornings at daybreak to give the +"Missionary Colt" (as he called the Oakes gelding) workouts on the +quiet. As far as I could observe, he saw very little of Rona. + +It was the girl who really chafed under the inaction of waiting. Two or +three times she sent for me to urge that we disregard the quarantine +regulations and go off to the schooner. Allen mentioned that she had +also begged him to take her out for a look-see at the _Cora_ on the +quiet. How she spent her time I did not know. Oakes told me that she +went out for long walks every day, sometimes going toward the hills and +sometimes along the shore. I found freshly picked tiger-lilies on Bell's +grave the day I visited it, and it occurred to me that the gathering of +these might have furnished the motive for the solitary walks. But if she +was still devoted to Bell's memory, why wouldn't she speak of him?--and +why the plan to go off to the Islands with Allen? The girl's conduct was +quite beyond my understanding. That was one thing I was sure of, at +least. + +Meanwhile I went ahead looking for a place I could turn into a studio. +It had been Allen's idea that the suburban bungalow he occupied after +coming out of quarantine would be suitable, but I was compelled to veto +it on account of the poor light--a consequence of the dense tropical +growth surrounding it. The same difficulty--light--ruled out a number of +other attractive places that were offered me, and I was about to close +with a rather squalid little shack near the beach as a last resort, when +Allen got wind of a temporarily vacant house on a big sugar estate, some +miles from town. + +This little gem of a hillside bungalow had been built by the sugar +people for a sub-overseer of the plantation, who had gone to Melbourne +to meet and marry a girl from home. As the lucky chap had been given a +three-months holiday for a honeymoon in New Zealand, the local manager +of the sugar company decided that there could be no objection to my +occupying the nest in the interim; in fact, he was sure his directors +would be highly honoured to have their property used by so distinguished +an artist, and for so laudable a purpose. He hoped I would not hesitate +to call upon him for help at any time. He would see to it that the +servants already hired against the return of Borton and his bride +reported at once, and that Borton's trap and saddle horses were placed +at my immediate disposal. + +I was greatly pleased with my find for a number of reasons besides the +fact that it had a large and well-lighted living-room that could be made +all I could ask to work in. Not the least of these was its location. +Several hundred feet above the sea, its wide verandas caught cool +currents of the Trade wind that the sultry lower levels never knew. +Infinitely refreshing, too--both in fact and in suggestion,--I found the +splendid stream which circled close under the rear wall, forming, where +a mossy ledge reared a natural dam, a deep, clear pool to which I could +jump from my bedroom window. The revitalizing effect of an early morning +plunge, I had found by long experience, was beyond comparison the best +antidote against the insidious absinthe poisoning paralyzing body and +brain at the end of the night. + +A couple of hundred yards further down the stream took a swift run +through a verdant tunnel of fern fronds and overhanging palm leaves, +before it leaped in a fine compact spout of green and white over the +verge of a creeper-clad cliff, to a lucent hyacinth-lined basin thirty +feet below. From there, quieter of mood and mind after its hillside +gambols, it meandered by pleasant reaches across a broad belt of +shimmering sugar cane, beyond which it disappeared in tangled growth of +primeval bush. By dark ways and devious, broadening and deepening in the +lower levels, it finally lost itself in the mangrove swamp that fringed +the sea fifteen miles to the northward. + +I mention this stream particularly because of the part it was destined +to play in the final act of the drama of the _Cora Andrews_. For a +similar reason it may be in order to say a few words about the great +flume, which took off from the stream at the pool below the waterfall +and led down to the big central sugar mill on the shore of the first +deeply indented bay north of Townsville. It was built, following the +successful Hawaiian practice, for the purpose of floating the cut cane +from the fields to the mill, a method which, wherever the natural +conditions were suited to it, had proved both cheaper and more +expeditious than the old system of transporting the succulent stalks by +tramway and bullock carts. + +The flume itself was built of imported Oregon pine planks, and was +carried on a trestle of rough-hewn blue-gum and _jarra_ trunks. In +section, the box of the flume was about four feet wide by three feet +deep. The water it carried--about a quarter of the normal flow of the +stream that fed it--varied in depth according to its velocity. The +latter, of course, depended upon the grade of the flume, this varying +from two or three per cent. in the broad upper valley to all of fifteen +per cent. in a couple of short steep pitches near the coast. + +I was interested in this flume from the first time I saw it. In the +course of a visit to Hawaii some years previously, I had found no end of +sport in what was called "sugar-fluming"--riding from the mountainside +plantations down to the mills seated on a water-propelled bundle of +sugar-cane. On my inquiring of the local manager if the highly diverting +stunt was practicable here, he had answered with a most emphatic +negative. "You could go down the flume all right," he said, "but the +volume of water is so great that you could not stop yourself by holding +to the sides even where the grades are the slightest. On the sharp +inclines, where the flume runs down to the mill, a team of bullocks +couldn't hold you back. Only one man ever tried the feat deliberately, +and we were picking fragments of him out of the _bagasse_ for a month. +Also spoiled a lot of sugar--everything from the juice in the vats to +the unfinished article in the centrifugals had to be thrown away. Same +thing has had to be done on the several occasions coolies have fallen +into the flume while at work. Jolly costly accidents for the company. I +hope that you're not contemplating...." + +I hastened to assure him that, after what he had told me, I most +certainly had ceased any contemplations I might have allowed myself to +indulge in up to then. Still I couldn't help picturing in my mind what +sport could be got out of the thing if only some sort of buffer were +rigged up at the lower end. That prompted me, a day or two after I was +settled in the bungalow and while time was still hanging on my hands, to +put my horse down the bridle-path along the flume when I went out for a +ride in the cool of the afternoon. After that I lost all interest in +"sugar-fluming" as a sport. It was just conceivable that a man of great +strength and agility might stop himself by gripping the sides of the +flume at several points in the first five or six miles, but from where +the sharp descent to the coast began I was inclined to agree with the +manager's statement, that the drag of a man's body in the pull of the +racing stream would take a team of bullocks off their feet. + +I dismounted and leaned over the edge of the flume where it ran through +a narrow cut in the rock at the brow of the great basaltic cliff that +followed the curve of the beach of the bay. This was the upper end of +the first of the two sharp drops and the water, which was running within +a foot of the top of the flume a hundred yards above, and here flattened +down to a scant six inches in the bottom, grey-green and solid like a +great endless belt of flying steel. The butt of my riding-whip was all +but jerked from my hand as I touched it lightly to the speeding water, +and a curving fan of spray was projected up into my face and over the +sides. The evidence of such a solidity of kick in running water seemed +almost beyond belief, until I recalled having heard how a jet escaping +from the pressure pipe of a hydro-electric plant somewhere in the +American West had penetrated a man's body, cleanly, like an arrow. + +My desire to ride the flume died then and there, though even yet I +couldn't help regretting that there wasn't a level stretch above the +jump-off, where a man could check his headway and crawl out. It would +have been rattling good sport down to there, but beyond--sheer suicide. +There was, it is true, a couple of hundred yards of perhaps five per +cent. grade between the first steep pitch over the edge of the cliff, +and a second one, even steeper, that seemed to run almost directly upon +the roaring, churning mass of cane-crushing machinery that began at the +upper end of the big mill. Even there the water was lightning-swift, +however, so that a man, once over the edge of the first pitch, looked to +be less than a thousand-to-one shot in bringing up before going on into +the second. And that would have been--how was it the manager put +it?--more "spoiled sugar"--another "jolly costly accident for the +company." + +The bridle-path I had been following continued on along the flume to the +mill, but, desiring to strike the main highway to Townsville as quickly +as possible, I put my sure-footed little Timor mare down what appeared +to be an abandoned road graded into the face of the cliff. When I +finally came out in the rear of what was plainly the remains of an +ancient water-driven cane-crushing mill, I realized that the old grade +by which I had descended must have been the bullock-cart road from the +plantation. The mill was a picturesque old ruin, with its mossy +water-wheel, crumbling roof and sprawling pier, and I made mental note +of the lovely little cove as a place well worth returning to with +paintbox and easel when opportunity offered. + +Returning through the town, I had the good luck to be hailed from the +sidewalk by my bluff old friend, Captain "Choppy" Tancred. He was +southbound with the _Utupua_ again, he said, but she was going to go to +drydock immediately on arrival in Sydney and he was going to command the +_Mambare_--a new steamer just turned out on the Clyde for the +company--and start north the following day. It was hard luck missing his +week at home with the wife and nippers at Manley, but his promotion to a +ship on the Singapore run was some consolation. He would be back in +Townsville again in a little over a week, and, as he had a lot of sugar +to load for the Straits, hoped to have the time for a good yarn with me. +It must have been more from habit than anything else (for the old boy +should have read enough about me in the papers by this time to be +convinced that I was not a fugitive from justice), that he repeated his +injunction that I must not fail to let him know if there was ever +anything he could do for me--"ye'll ken wha' I mean, lad." And, equally +from habit, I assured him that I "kenned wha'," and would not fail to +call upon him in my extremity. + +As I had nothing but what I had brought with me on the steamer to move, +and as the house was practically ready for occupancy, I was comfortably +settled in my hillside bungalow at the end of the third day after our +arrival from the south. A Chinese cook and house-boy, a Hindu groom, a +couple of New Hebridean blacks as roustabouts, and Ranga as general +factotum, gave me a very tidy and self-contained establishment. Ranga I +had taken to at once. He was quick-minded and quick-handed, extremely +good-natured, and ready to do anything at any time of the day or night. +I resolved to keep him with me indefinitely as a personal servant--that +is, if it fell in with his own inclinations after he had given me a fair +trial. + +I made a number of rather successful studies of Ranga by way of getting +my hand in again, and that suggested that it might be profitable to put +in the days of waiting by trying what could be done along the same lines +with the others who were to figure in the picture. Allen, although busy +with his secret training of the Oakes colt (all unknown even to the good +missionary, by the way, who thought that "Slant" was merely borrowing +the gelding for his morning ride), found time to come up and give me +several sittings. It was easy to see that he hated the whole thing, and +was only going through with it as a part of the bargain with Rona. The +latter, after promising me faithfully to come, was reported missing on +all of the three occasions I sent the trap for her. As her whim was at +the bottom of the whole mad plan, I was not a little mystified at the +girl's action. Also, as it was she whom I was most anxious to do full +justice to in the picture, I was a good deal annoyed. Allen had no +explanation or excuse to offer for her, saying the girl had him pocketed +at every turn anyhow, but volunteered to try and round her up for me +himself as soon as the Planters' Handicap was out of the way, and he had +a bit more time on his hands. For all of his light way of speaking, I +knew that he was as hard hit as ever, and had thrown himself into the +training of the "Missionary Colt" only to give him something else to +think about. + +Two unostentatious acts of kindness on the part of Allen in the course +of the week which followed added fresh refulgency to his halo of +popularity. Townsville had gone madder than ever about him following his +sudden and unexpected return from the south, and the same appeared to be +true of the rest of the country. In all sincerity, he had tried to do +both of the things I have referred to strictly on the quiet, and that +they became public was only a consequence of the zeal of the fresh army +of "war correspondents" that had been rushed north again to camp upon +the hero's trail. + +One of Allen's little kindnesses was an appeal, in his own name, to the +Governor of Western Australia to have dismissed the proceedings that had +been instituted to bring "Squid" Saunders back to be locked up for the +twenty-three and a half years which still remained to be served of his +original twenty-five-year sentence. This appeal was accompanied by a +promise to send the ex-convict, immediately he was released, back to the +Islands at Allen's expense. + +Doubtless the momentary magic of Allen's name had something to do with +the Westralian Governor's complaisance. In any event, "Squid" Saunders +was out of jail and off as a first-class passenger on one of the Solomon +Island boats inside of a week. Allen, the correspondents were not long +in learning, had bought the ticket, footed all of the very sizable +telegraph bills, and given the purser of the steamer a hundred pounds in +gold to be handed to "Squid" when he was disembarked at Bougainville. +The correspondents, long baulked of any real "Allen stuff," went to that +story like hungry hounds. + +But scarcely was the "Squid" Saunders story onto the wires before it was +followed by the news of Allen's astonishing win of the Planters' +Handicap with the rank outsider, Yusuf, at two-hundred-to-one. That win +was spectacular enough in itself, but when, on the heels of it, was +flashed the word that not only the thousand-guinea purse hung up for the +race, but approximately twenty-five hundred pounds paid to Allen by the +"tote" as well, had been donated to the owner of Yusuf to forward the +realization of his long-cherished dream--the erection of a modern +medical mission in Fiji--the climax was capped. Australia echoed anew +with acclaim of the "philanthropist hero" (it was now), and press and +pulpit moralized and maundered afresh on the Hon. Hartley Allen's +goodness of heart and greatness of soul. The clamour of the people of +the country to see their idol in the flesh fused the Townsville wires +from every direction. It was all very well that the incomparable heroism +of the saving of the _Cora Andrews_ should be perpetuated upon canvas, +but why should the pushful American artist drag the hero off before his +own people had a chance to do him homage? Let the artist rise to the +occasion with a display of that famous "Yankee hustle" they had heard so +much about and get the job over "right quick." It was the man himself +they wanted; let the picture wait if it couldn't be finished +straightaway! + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + HELL'S HATCHES OFF + + +That may give some hint of the state of mind of Australians when, +waiting on the tip-toe of expectancy for word of the next dashing act of +their hero, they received a message of quite another tenor. It was the +Sydney _Herald_ man who sent the message that swept the country like the +blast of a hurricane. He wired just the bare facts and no more. His +imagination, even his reasoning faculties, as he confessed in a later +dispatch, were numbed for the moment, temporarily paralyzed by the +staggering shock of the horror he had looked upon. + +"The Hon. Hartley Allen was found at an early hour this morning" (ran +the telegram) "bound, gagged and lashed to the wheel of the schooner +_Cora Andrews_, which has been aground for some time at a lonely spot on +the beach of Cleveland Bay, several miles north of Townsville. Allen, +who was taken to the General Hospital as soon as he was brought back to +town, is a raving maniac and not expected to live out the day. From +information in the hands of the police, there is no doubt that the +worse-than-assassin was the ex-convict, 'Squid' Saunders, recently +released from jail and deported to the Solomons through Allen's generous +efforts on his behalf. He is known to have escaped from his northbound +steamer at Cairns, stolen a fishing sloop, and is believed to have +headed back to Townsville to carry out the dastardly act his disordered +brain has evidently nursed for years. As the police seem likely to yield +to the popular pressure to employ bloodhounds in running down the +fugitive, his capture is probably the matter of but a few hours." + +It was a fairly sane, reasonable-reading dispatch, that. None but a man +who had felt his blood turn to ice-water at the sight the _Herald_ man +had looked upon that morning could appreciate how much credit he +deserved for stating the facts so coherently. For myself, at the moment +the launch brought us back from the _Cora_ and put us ashore at the +landing, I would have been incapable of writing my own name correctly. +There was only one thing I could do--nay, would have had to try to do if +the world had been disintegrating beneath my feet--and I did it. That is +why so much of the next thirty-six hours is a blank in my mind. + + * * * * * + +It was on a Saturday that Allen had made his spectacular killing in +winning the Planters' Handicap, and on Sunday afternoon, to escape the +importunities of Townsville generally and the correspondents in +particular, he had ridden up to pay me a visit at my hillside bungalow. +I had missed the race (through another appointment for a sitting with +Rona, which, like the others, she had failed to keep), and so took the +occasion to get some account of it at first-hand from Allen. He was in +high spirits over his success, but rather inclined to be put out with +the impulsive Oakes for breaking down in church that morning and +proclaiming to all and sundry the real source of the thirty-five hundred +and odd pounds that had fallen at his feet like manna from the skies. +What had come nearest to flooring Melanesia's leading bad man, I think, +was that the missionary had publicly announced his intention of naming +the new medical mission at Suva after the donor! + +Allen also, somewhat to my surprise, was not averse to speaking of the +"Squid" Saunders episode. "The only redeeming thing about the old +ruffian," he observed, "is his affection for that girl of his--the +red-haired one, I mean--the black-and-tans don't signify. Rather a +remarkable girl, that one, Whitney. She was one of the kind that must +either soar to the high places or wallow in the low ones, and I've been +sorrier than I can tell that I was slated to--well, not to start her +winging for the heights exactly. I really wasn't a lot to blame in the +matter, but--that isn't either here or there. Old 'Squid' _thinks_ I +was, and will go on thinking so till his dying day--or mine. I tried to +get the old reprobate to call it quits when I shipped him off the other +day. Do you think he would? No fear. Not the 'Squid.' Indeed, +considering the bother I had wangling him out of serving that Kalgoorlie +sentence of his, he was rather nasty. He asked me if I was trying to buy +him off for fear he'd get me in the end. There wasn't much I could say +to that under the circumstances, so I just let him go. Now the purser of +the _Nawarika_ wires me from Cooktown to say that the 'Squid' slipped +ashore at Cairns and failed to show up again before sailing time. Purser +says he still has the hundred quid I gave him to slip Saunders when they +put him off in the Solomons. I have turned the wire over to the police, +but have asked them to sit tight unless Saunders shows up in this +section again. I hate to drag the old fire-eater into a new mess, +especially after all the trouble I had getting him out of the old one. +So I hope he won't be fool enough to come mooching south again. Don't +suppose he will, but--I'll be keeping an eye lifting just the same +against the loom of a vitriol bomb on the weather skyline." + +Allen tapped his coat significantly at those last words, and that +reminded him that there were two or three little things about +"pocket-gunnery" he wanted me to coach him up on. Nailing a foot-square +of discarded canvas to the swelling bole of a bottle tree down by the +stream, we put in a half-hour of "by-and-large" practice at it. Allen, +thanks to his natural gift for judging distance and angle, proved a very +apt pupil. + +By way of return for his gunnery lesson, "Slant" volunteered to show me +a few tricks of knife-throwing, in which he was reputed to have no equal +in the Islands. "I'm about as much of a walking arsenal as you were the +time you waited for me at the _Australia_, Whitney," he said with a +grin, as he produced a broad-bladed dagger from a sheath slung +unobtrusively on his right hip. "This knife, by the way," he went on, +tilting it lightly across his forefinger, "is balanced especially for +throwing. They are made in Lisbon, mostly for export to Brazil I +understand, where they seem to go in for that kind of stunt a good bit. +I bought it from the skipper of a Portuguese gunboat at Deli, who also +taught me the principles of chucking it. First and last, I've had a lot +of sport out of practising with it, and have an idea I would have an +even break with the _Capitano_ himself when my hand's in. I was very +grateful to old 'Squid' for handing it back to me the other day. I only +hope he won't be forcing me to pass it on to him again." + +Allen's skill with the wicked-bladed _facon_ was decidedly impressive. +If anything, he was a shade more accurate in planting the point of it +than I was with a bullet from my pocket. Little luck as I had in +throwing it, I was quite as fascinated with the appearance and "feel" of +the formidable weapon as Allen had been with my target revolver in +Sydney. "I trust you won't have to part with it again, to Saunders or +anyone else," I said as I handed it back to him. + +Before he mounted for his ride back to town, I mentioned to Allen that +Rona had left me in the lurch again the day before, and intimated that, +unless she began to show more interest in the picture, I would have to +consider packing up and going back to Sydney. As a matter of fact, the +girl's perversity had already been responsible for effectually dampening +down my first flush of enthusiasm, and I began seriously to doubt my +ability to make a success of the picture when the way was clear to work +at it. Allen begged me not to be discouraged, and assured me again that +he would look up Rona himself on the morrow and see if he couldn't get +some line on what she was sulking about. He also said he would see if +the quarantine people couldn't be prodded along to get at the job of +disinfecting the _Cora_. + +Rona still failed to show up on the following day, and in the evening I +was unable to get 'phone connection with Allen's bungalow in an +endeavour to learn if he had seen her. Dr. Butler, whom I got on the +wire at the Quarantine Station, said that Allen had rung them up that +morning, urging them to get a move on with the _Cora_. They had told him +that they were planning to send a squad off before the end of the week. +As word had just come to them, however, that men were seen climbing over +the schooner that afternoon, they had decided to clean up the job in the +morning. As long as the ship remained in her present condition, he said, +she would continue a possible spreader of disease. She should have been +attended to before. If I cared to go off with them, he added, he would +pick me up at the landing at eight o'clock. I thanked him and told him I +would be glad of the chance to look things over before going to work. + +I drove down early in the morning, taking Ranga with me on the chance +that Allen and Rona might care to go off and plan a tentative grouping. +A black boy cutting weeds with a sickle in front of Allen's bungalow +told me that "white marster stop townside" for the night and had not yet +returned. At the Mission I found Oakes a good deal perturbed. The day +before, he said, Allen had called just after lunch, talked with Rona a +few minutes, and then borrowed Yusuf and gone off for a ride. He had not +returned at dusk, but during the night the horse, dangling a broken +bridle rein, had come galloping back to his stable. The missionary was +fearful the rider had been thrown and stunned, and had been lying all +night on the road. He had sent out boys to search soon after daylight. +He was not sanguine of an early report from them, as Allen on his rides +always avoided the metalled main highways to save his horse's feet. No, +Yusuf's knees showed no signs of his having stumbled. He was as +sure-footed as a goat and as gentle as a kitten. Not in the least given +to shying or bolting. Besides, the colt wasn't foaled that could unseat +Hartley Allen. Of course, he must have struck his head against a +low-hanging limb in galloping some bush path, but that was unlikely. +Hartley had his wits too much on the alert to be caught like that. He +was beginning to be just a bit suspicious of foul play. Had I heard that +"Squid" Saunders had left his steamer at Cairns and was believed to have +sailed south in a stolen fishing-boat? He was just about to call up the +Police Station and tell them of Allen's disappearance when I came. + +Rona had been off on one of her long walks the previous afternoon, Oakes +said in answer to my inquiry, and was not yet up. He had spoken with her +through her window, just after Yusuf came back, in the hope that she +might be able to give him some hint of the road Allen had taken. The +latter had not mentioned where he was going, she said. She herself had +been "away inland"--Oakes had encountered her on his weekly round +through the plantation villages. She was a tireless walker, and very +restless--altogether a strange character. I did not disturb the girl, as +I reckoned there was no use in taking her off to the schooner until +Allen was along to talk our plans over. + +It would have seemed that this word of Allen's disappearance, taken in +conjunction with the fact that men had been seen on the wreck of the +_Cora_ the previous day, might have given me just a shade of preparation +for what I saw as I followed Butler and the _Herald_ man over the +schooner's side an hour later. But it was not so, probably because my +mental faculties were at their dullest at so (for me) unwontedly early +an hour. If the news had come to me in the afternoon, possibly I would +have traced some connection between the two events, and so have been at +least slightly braced and stiffened for the coming shock. As it was, I +bumped into it all unset, and the staggering impact of it came near to +bowling me over. + +It had been Dr. Butler's theory, propounded as the launch put away from +the landing, that the figures descried on the _Cora_ the afternoon +before were those of blacks or coolies, attracted to the hulk by the +hope of loot. As a matter of fact, he said, they would doubtless have +made quite a haul, as nothing but the ship's papers had been taken +ashore on the day of her arrival. Considerable "trade" and all of the +personal effects of her former officers had been left for removal after +disinfection. + +As we came out into the bay the coast to the northward began to open up, +and presently the wreck of the _Cora_, heeled sharply to port with the +foremast over the bows, became visible against the deep green of the +mangroves a couple of miles distant. Butler studied the hulk closely +through his glasses as we closed it. + +"Looks as though I had another guess coming," he remarked finally, +lowering the binoculars with a puzzled air. "Someone aboard her now. +Seems to be jiggering the wheel. Can't be a pirate stunt, can it? +Wouldn't be possible to drop a petrol engine into her, block up the hole +and get off to the Islands on the quiet? But of course not. That's a +drydock job--'count of the propeller and shaft." + +At a quarter of a mile he raised his glasses again. "Chap at the wheel's +the only man in sight," he reported. "He don't seem to have spotted us +yet. Must be deaf, not to hear the explosions of our exhaust. Ah, +perhaps that accounts for it! He's an old cove--big shock of white hair. +'Bout time he was getting his helmet on, though, with this sun beginning +to bore into the back of his neck. Ahoy, there!..." + +But there was no reply. The lone white-haired figure was still jiggering +at the wheel when the launch, nosing in cautiously in the up-boil of +reversed propellers, slid past the _Cora's_ stern and the loom of her +counter cut it off from our view. + +A moss-shiny Jacob's Ladder hung over the starboard side amidships, +where a section of the "nigger-wire" had been cut away, doubtless when +the labour-recruits were disembarked. Butler climbed up first, then the +_Herald_ man (who had come off on the Doctor's invitation to see the +ship made famous by the great exploit of the Hon. Hartley Allen), and +then myself. Butler lingered at the ladder for a few moments, giving +orders to his men about bringing the disinfecting paraphernalia aboard; +so it was given to the newspaper man to be the first to go aft and +discover that the moving, gibbering white-haired wretch lashed to the +wheel of the schooner represented the sum total of the mental and +physical remnants of the man whose doings he had been detailed to +chronicle. + +The horrified reporter uttered no sound--simply froze and stood rooted +to the deck in amazed consternation. It was as though the basilisk stare +of the maniac's eyes had turned the flesh and blood of his rangy frame +to stone. When he stirred finally, it was to tip-toe softly back two or +three paces to where I, in turn, had frozen in my tracks. It was his +hand on my shoulder and his white face thrust close to mine that broke +my own trance. Then the both of us must have retreated another step or +two, until we bumped into Butler, similarly petrified with horror. + +I am almost certain that not one of the three of us made any outcry, or +even uttered a word, so paralyzing was the effect of the apparition at +the wheel. The first sound I definitely recall as breaking in upon those +muffled mowings from the cockpit was a booming gasp as Ranga's mighty +chest sucked in a lungful of air, and then the big Malay's quiet "'Scuse +me, Tuan," as he started to shove past between me and the deckhouse. + +The yellow giant had seen too many men, white and black, lose their +minds and their lives on that reeking old schooner to let the snapping +of one more brain, or the parting of one more life-line, ruffle unduly +his solid Oriental composure. He had been fond of Allen, however, and I +could see that he was shaken, though not, like the rest of us, unnerved. +There was a rumble of concern and anxiety even in that respectful +"'Scuse me, Tuan," as he started to push past the blockade the cowering +forms of three lesser men had made in the narrow passage. + +Ranga's steadiness was good for the rest of us. Butler checked the Malay +with upraised hand and, muttering something about his duty as a doctor, +started aft, the _Herald_ man and I pushing in his wake. If it had been +possible for the fear-distorted features of the wreck of "Slant" Allen +to express extremer terror, that heightened degree was registered when +Butler extended his opened clasp-knife to begin severing the lashings. I +have no wish to attempt to describe that hell-haunted face. Indeed, +there will be scant need of my doing so, for there can be few readers of +this record who are not already familiar with its tortured lineaments. +It seared itself into my brain with a white heat of intensity that left +no room for any other image. At the moment it seemed as though it must +be blazoned there as long as my body was quick with the spark of life, +or at least until my reason recoiled at the horror of it and tottered +from its throne. A little later, when the dread face itself had been +hidden from my sight, a light seemed suddenly to flash out in the +distance, and in groping toward it I found relief. + +The ghastly shadow of the Hon. Hartley Allen was standing wedged in +between the wheel and the binnacle-stand, his wrists lashed to the +spokes of the former and a maze of tangled line binding his knees to the +latter. The lashing was a length cut from the taffrail-log-line, another +piece of which had been used to secure a gag of wadded oakum. The only +wound visible (save for the wrists chafed through to the white cords of +their tendons in his desperate tuggings to tear free) was a +half-inch-wide incision on the right inner side of the neck, evidently +made by the point of a knife pressed in close to the swell of the +jugular vein. As this cut was hardly more than a deep prick, it seemed +probable that the knife had been used, not to inflict injury, but rather +to compel the victim to remain quiet while he was being secured. + +As the wrist lashings fell away, Allen lurched savagely forward with a +throaty "g-rrr" and did his best to claw Butler's throat with his +fingers. His strength was spent by his night-long struggles, however, +and Ranga easily smothered the attack in the crook of his interposed +arm. The removal of the gag did not, as might have been expected from +the way the chest had been labouring, release a frantic scream. The +passages of the throat, although the neck revealed no evidences of +having been choked--recently, that is,--appeared to be swollen almost +shut. The windpipe would carry air to the lungs, but every effort to +expel it violently seemed to clap a sort of automatic muffler on the +vocal chords. + +Allen collapsed limply into Ranga's arms when his leg lashings had been +cut, but he would not swoon. The dread of the damned continued to stream +from his staring and unbelievably dilated eyes; those hoarse heavings of +throat-throttled shrieks continued to issue from his gaping mouth; every +time a hand or foot was freed, he continued to strike or kick with it to +the limit of his pitifully drained strength. + +Butler said that the only hope of saving the man's mind, and probably +his life as well, was to rush him to the hospital and put him under an +opiate as quickly as possible. Ranga picked up the tortured body +carefully, as he might have handled a struggling kitten, and passed it +down to the launch. Butler had the forethought to have us all sprayed +with the disinfectant before we went over the side, so as to minimize +the chances of our carrying off any plague germs. + +Just as the launch was about to shove off, Ranga begged the coxswain to +hold on for a moment, and went clambering back up the latter. He ran +aft, picked up something from the deck, and came back tucking his little +Malay flute into the waistband of his dungarees. He had dropped it in +the cockpit, he explained. + +About all I can recall of the run back to the landing was the +interminable number of times the _Herald_ man insisted on telling us +that he had been talking to Hartley Allen all the while the latter had +been shifting into his jockey togs for the Planters' Handicap, and of +how Butler, each time, replied: "And he slept in my pajamas all the time +he was in quarantine." Possibly I said equally trivial things; but I +don't recall them. I was conscious of a great pity for the plight of the +man for whom I had come to have a genuine liking, and a dull sort of +wonder as to how the tragedy might have happened and who was responsible +for it. But the haunting horror of that fear-stricken face hung like a +curtain in front of my mind, dimming or blanking everything behind it. + +At Butler's suggestion, he--with Ranga to help--took a carriage at the +landing and drove direct to the hospital with Allen, while the _Herald_ +man and I went in my trap to the Police Station to report to the Chief. +The latter had recently come to his present job from Charters Towers, +where he had made something of a name for himself by breaking up a gang +of outlaws who had long been doing pretty much as they pleased in that +rough and ready bonanza town. He was a chap of great determination, +energy and courage, but of little subtlety--rather the type of a +Western American sheriff than a city police chief. I had met him at the +Club two or three times, and liked him for his steady eye and open +straightforwardness. + +The Chief was a little impatient at the _Herald_ man's repetitions of +the togs-shifting episode, and possibly also of my own wooden silence; +but he got to the salient facts readily, and was no less forward with +his deductions therefrom. + +"'Squid' Saunders beyond a doubt," he pronounced decisively. "His sloop +was sighted twice between here and Cairns, the last time only fifty +miles to the north'ard. He could have landed night before last easy. Any +of the lagoons running back into the Caradarra Swamp would hide his +sloop. That would have given him all day yesterday to scout for Allen. +Why the schooner I don't quite twig. But the 'Squid' was always adding +devilish little embroideries to his jobs, and leaving a man to rot on a +plague ship has all of his ear-marks. Never mind, I've had two launches +patrolling the north coast for him since yesterday morning. He must have +landed before they got there. But they'll nab him if he pulls out with +the sloop again, and if he doesn't, _I'll_ nab him. I hate to do it with +a white man, but I'm going to put Rawdon's 'nigger-chasers' on his +trail. I've got 'Squid's' old suit of clothes--the one he threw away +when Allen bought him a new outfit--stowed away here, and I fancy a +sniff of it will be enough to put them on the scent with. If I don't +miss my guess, Mr. 'Squid' Saunders will be enjoying our bed and board +again before another twenty-four hours has gone by." + +The Chief dropped his professional manner for a few moments as we arose +to go. "Allen was a good friend of yours, Mr. Whitney," he said, laying +a kindly grip on my shoulder. "I don't wonder that you're a bit dazed by +the thing. Rather puts a damper on the picture, I'm afraid. Going up the +hill now, are you? Good--a bit of a rest will steady you no end. Ring up +this evening and we'll give you the news. It won't be long before we +have our man." + +The _Herald_ man, with the Chief's approval, rushed off to the telegraph +office to dispatch his wire. I drove round to the hospital to pick up +Ranga and inquire for news of Allen. Butler came down to see me in the +reception-room and reported that it had taken an astonishing quantity of +morphine to have any effect upon the patient, but that he was at last +beginning to grow quieter. His heart action was very irregular and there +was no saying yet what turn things might take. He asked me to let Ranga +remain at the hospital for a day or two. They were short of orderlies as +a consequence of the smallpox epidemic, and the big Malay was a very +useful attendant on account of his strength, quietness and good sense. +As they were trying to avoid the necessity of putting Allen in a +strait-jacket, they wanted someone in the room able to handle him if he +became violent again on coming out from his opiate. I told him to keep +Ranga as long as he was needed. + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + THE FACE + + +The Chief of Police's allusion to the picture had started a nebulous +idea in my head, but it took it several hours to crystallize. Driving +alone up the hill, my mind gravitated dully to the matter of the +identity of the perpetrator of the unspeakable outrage. I found myself +speculating as to whether or not the Chief of Police, had he known of +Rona's previous attacks upon Allen, would have been as ready as he was +to attribute the guilt to "Squid" Saunders. And would he--had he known +of them--been able to trace any connection between Rona's repeated +attempts to induce Allen to go off to the schooner with her and the fact +that the crime had been committed there? And didn't it look just a +little as though Rona's whole strange plan for having a picture painted +was only a subterfuge to open the way for a carefully plotted revenge? +And yet, if she had done all this, she surely must have had--or thought +she had--a good reason for doing it. But had not Oakes established a +clear alibi for the girl when he met her "away inland" the same +afternoon men had been reported to have been seen on the schooner? +Probably, but not certainly. Oakes himself had said that she was "a +great walker" and "very restless." + +It was conceivable that the girl might have doubled back and waylaid +Allen on the road. Or perhaps she had met him by appointment. He had +admitted that he was becoming increasingly subject to her will. But how +could she have induced him to go off to the schooner, and how had they +gone? No boat had been sighted along the beach (we had looked for one +through Butler's glasses on our return to the landing), and none was +reported missing from the harbour. The Chief had inquired on that latter +point while we were with him at the Station. + +And how had Rona, or anyone else for that matter, been able to get the +better of such a man as Allen, fully armed and on the alert as I knew +him to have been, and noted for his resourcefulness in emergency? That +train of thought reminded me that we had found no arms on Allen when we +released him. His right coat-pocket was empty, and so was the +knife-sheath on his right hip. But his pocketbook, containing a +considerable amount in notes, had not been taken.... It was all too much +for my tired brain, which, ready enough to suggest questions, was quite +incapable of grappling with them. When I drove into the home clearing I +was wondering whether the broken glass I had noticed in the bottom of +the cockpit was that from the whisky bottle Allen had told me Rona had +thrown at him the morning Bell gave up the fight. + +I was horribly tired, both in mind and body, and hoped that, with a +glass or two of absinthe to relax my nerves, I might be able to sleep at +least through the heat of the noonday. Shifting into my pajamas,--after +telling Suey, my China boy, that I would not want lunch and not to +disturb me until I sent for him,--I crawled under the mosquito-net and +tried to drop off. But it was no use. No sooner would I begin to doze +than the expiring images of my thoughts would shuffle up and sharpen +with a steel-clicking suddenness into the dread likeness of The Face, +with its dilated eyes boring me to the spine. + +At the end of a couple of hours of fevered tossing, I gave it up, threw +off my pajamas, stepped to the low back-window ledge and took a header +into the cool green pool below. The Face dissolved as the thrill of the +refreshing embrace of the water ran through my blood, but only to return +when, after donning a fresh suit of drills, I began a restless pacing of +the floor of the big living-room--my studio. Always it flashed a pace or +two ahead of me, floating backward as I advanced upon it and swinging +with me at the end of the room. I could not wheel swiftly enough to lose +it, and it made no difference whether my eyes were opened or closed. I +tried it both ways. + +It was in the course of an experimental lap I was trying with my hands +over my eyes that I bumped into the big rectangle of canvas I had +prepared in advance against the day I should be ready to start work on +"The Saving of the Black-birder." Ten seconds later I was pawing over my +colours with feverish haste. The idea swimming in my head had +crystallized. It was, in effect: _Put The Face on canvas and it will +cease to haunt and harrow your mind_. That sounded reasonable. Certainly +The Face couldn't be in two places at once, and if I once got it +anchored to the canvas I could cover it up when I wanted to get away +from it. It would all depend upon how faithfully I did my work, +something told me. If the face on the canvas was a replica of the other +to a hair, to a line, to the fear in the hell-haunted eyes, then the +phantom face would enter into it and become subject to my control. If +not--then I would never know sleep nor peace while I continued to live. + +No artist can ever have approached a task under empire of the flaming +intensity I threw into this one. I was painting to save my reason, +perhaps my life. That is not a figure of speech. I mean it quite +literally, for I am convinced to this day that I stumbled upon the only +path that would have led me clear of complete mental and physical +collapse. + +There was a rather remarkable coincidence in connection with the way I +started to work. Nothing told me that those first nervous slashes of my +brush signalized the beginning of a picture the fame of which was +destined to reach the outposts of the civilized world before the year +was out. All thought of "The Black-birder" was erased from my mind. I +had no idea of a picture in my head. I was not even beginning to work +upon a figure. I was only conscious that I was going to put all I had +into the task of reproducing--recreating, if that were possible--with +coloured pigments a phantom of my brain--a face--The Face. + +I had no thought, I say, of beginning a picture. I sketched nothing in, +not even the outline of the haunting shadow I was going to try to +capture. A very few minutes after I began squeezing out colours onto my +palette I was smearing them upon a patch of the big six-feet-by-ten +expanse of woven cotton in front of me. The coincidence I have mentioned +became apparent some weeks later, when I discovered that, of all the +sixty square feet of canvas before me, the something less than one +square foot upon which I concentrated my paint and energies for the next +thirty hours chanced to be in exactly the place it _had_ to be for the +result of my effort to assume its proper place in a somewhat intricate +composition. I will tell of that in due course. + +Save for the strain of the terrible tension under which I worked, the +task to which I had set myself proved absolutely the simplest I ever +attempted. It seemed that I could not go wrong. It was not like painting +a face from memory, nor yet like painting one from a model. It was more +like colouring a photograph, for the image, terrible as life, was right +there on the canvas at the end of my arm. At first, as I tried to +visualize it at shorter range than the five or six feet at which it had +been floating, it was a bit hazy; but presently my intense concentration +of mind had its reward. The dreadful phantom drew nearer, increased in +detail, and finally sharpened into clear focus at the tip of my brush. +After that I became just a meticulously faithful retoucher, working in a +trance. + +It was toward the middle of the afternoon when Suey came in to ask if I +was going to be home for dinner. He was becoming used to my queer ways, +and, when I failed to take any notice of his reiterated query, came over +and touched me on the shoulder. I "came out" with a start, but gathered +my wits quickly. I told Suey that I should probably be working steadily +for the next day or two and would want nothing to eat until I was +finished. If he would bring me a bowl of cracked ice every hour and see +that no one was allowed in to bother me, it would be all I should want +of him. He replied with a laconic "Can do," and backed out toward the +kitchen as though I had asked for curry-and-rice for dinner, or ordered +something else equally rational and matter-of-fact. + +I settled back into my spell of tranced concentration with scarcely an +effort, working swiftly and surely, with never a pause. The "drawing" +was all done for me, and even in the matter of colours there was no +hesitation. Exactly the proper shade or tint drew my brush like a +magnet; and always it was applied with telling effect. + +The sunset shadows of the western hills were driving their black wedges +across the satiny sheen of the light-flickering levels of the waving +sugar-cane when I became aware that a sound I had been conscious of for +some time had suddenly changed and intensified. If my mind had tried to +catalogue the clear notes that had been floating in through the north +window, it was probably to credit them to a certain bell-bird friend of +mine who was in the habit of ringing his vesper chimes from a leafy +chapel in the big bottle tree toward the end of the afternoon. But there +was nothing bird-like in the quick staccato of eager yelps that had been +responsible for bringing me, with ears and interest a-cock, out of my +trance. "Dogs closing in for a kill," I muttered to myself, realizing +that it had been the distant baying of hounds on a hot scent that I had +confused with the more imminent chiming of my Austral bell-ringing +neighbour. The sounds came from a long way off--probably from somewhere +in the dense bush beyond the farther borders of the cane fields. It was +a northerly hauling of the wind that brought them down to me so clearly. +The air had been charged and electric all day, and the breaking up of +the trade wind indicated that a hurricane was mustering its forces +somewhere up among the Islands. I had not looked at the barometer on the +veranda, but knew that it must be registering a considerable fall. + +The crack of a single shot drifted down the wind as the yelping reached +its climax. Then all was quiet in the distance, with only an occasional +cackling guffaw of a "laughing jackass" ripping across the silence that +brooded nearer at hand. I didn't know what there was to hunt in that +particular neck of Queensland, but thought it might be kangaroos or +dingoes. It wasn't of enough interest to waste time in speculating upon +it, just then in any event. + +Daylight had given way to twilight, and twilight to moonlight, before I +stopped work again, this time to respond to an insistent ringing of the +telephone bell. Oakes' deep voice came excitedly over the wire. "I +thought you would be interested to know that Rawdon's dogs tracked down +'Squid' Saunders this afternoon," it said. "He has just been brought in. +Bullet through his shoulder, but not a serious wound. The report went +around that he had confessed to the attack on Hartley Allen, and the +town went wild. Only the Chief's nerve prevented a lynching, and there +may be trouble yet. Never saw the people so excited." In response to my +inquiry about Allen, Oakes said that he had been drugged to sleep early +in the afternoon, and that there was no use trying to forecast what turn +things would take until he came out. + +"That clears Rona, at any rate," was my thought as I drained a glass of +iced absinthe and picked up my brush again. I found it just a shade +harder materializing The Face than it had been at first, but managed it +at the end of a minute or two of close concentration. Save for an +occasional pause for a sip of absinthe, I worked steadily on through the +night. + + * * * * * + +To make clear what transpired the following day, it will be well to set +down at this point a few things which I only learned in a conversation +with the Chief of Police after the last act of the drama was played to a +finish and the curtain rung down. Contrary to the understanding of Dr. +Oakes, and all the rest of the people of Townsville with the exception +of the Chief of Police and a couple of his assistants, "Squid" Saunders +had _not_ confessed. From what he _had_ said in the presence of all his +captors, however, it was easy to see how the story had originated. He +admitted quite freely to Rawdon, after the latter had called off his +dogs and was lending a hand to plug up the puncture in "Squid's" +shoulder, that his one purpose in returning had been to settle his +account with "Slant" Allen. He also said that he would rather be strung +up straightaway than to be sent back to West Australia and begin, at +sixty, serving out a twenty-odd-year sentence. + +That was about all Saunders said at the time of his capture, but later, +after expressing himself to the Chief of Police to similar effect, he +went a little further. He averred frankly that curiosity had always been +one of his most pronounced characteristics, and, while he entertained +only the kindliest feelings for whoever it was that had been responsible +for tying up "Slant" Allen and leaving him alone to meditate upon his +past, he couldn't help wondering about the identity of a man able to +pull off such a cleverly thought-out and executed piece of business. +Might he not suggest to the Chief that the latter try to find some +trifle that this bright-minded and quick-handed cove had left behind on +the schooner, and see if those sharp-nosed--yes, and sharp-teethed--dogs +of his couldn't be put on the owner's trail. They appeared a very likely +lot of hounds, especially that big black-and-tan brute with a chewed +ear, who had broken away from the ruck and fastened his teeth in the +"Squid's" calf. + +This all struck the straightforward, open-minded Chief as entirely +reasonable. It was only fair to Saunders, too, and since saving him from +the mob that afternoon the Chief had come to take a sort of proprietary +interest in his prisoner. Going off to the schooner in the morning he +found a small fragment of red rag in the cockpit, which, though it was +greasy and dirty, did not show signs of exposure to the weather, and +must, therefore, have been left comparatively recently. It was a +six-by-eight-inch piece of flowered red calico, of the kind used by the +natives of all parts of the South Seas for waist-cloths. Even if he +wasn't able to locate the particular _sulu_ from which it was torn, the +Chief reckoned that it would give the dogs something to go by. + +Rawdon's "nigger-chasers" were of a foxhound-bloodhound cross that the +old ex-bushranger had bred especially for the purpose of chivvying down +runaway blacks from the sugar plantations. The swart sextette displayed +a very encouraging interest in the greasy rag the Chief brought them to +sniff; so much so, indeed, that they were far from drained of enthusiasm +at the end of a bootless day's nosing up and down the coast for tracks +that gave back the same ingratiating aroma. It looked quite good enough +to warrant going on with the game the following morning, Rawdon +pronounced, as he started back on foot for his kennels on the southwest +outskirts of town. (The old chap had some kind of a theory about its +being destructive to a hound's keeness to tote him around on wheels: +also, he had stumbled upon many trails where he least expected them, +even in the town.) + +Rawdon was striding a couple of blocks ahead of his two helpers when, +crossing the town end of the main westerly highway to the hills, the dog +he was holding in leash--the big black-and-tan with the chewed ear, by +far his keenest-nosed hound--broke away and set off up the side of the +road in full cry. As there was no hope of trying to overtake him on +foot, Rawdon waited for the other dogs to come up and catch the scent, +cautioning his men to hold them well in leash and not to hurry until he +rejoined them. Then he ran back a quarter of a mile to the Police +Station to summon the Chief and get a horse. + +This was about seven o'clock in the evening of Wednesday, the day after +we had found Hartley Allen bound to the wheel of the _Cora Andrews_. + + * * * * * + +At the moment the big black-and-tan hound tore his leash out of Rawdon's +hand and started to burn up the footpath beside the westerly hill road, +I had been streaking a small patch of canvas with coloured pigments for +something like thirty hours in a desperate endeavour to drive a phantom +out of my brain. I was near to the end of my labours and--I could sense +it already--close to victory. I had made a hard fight for it and I +deserved to win. Using absinthe sparingly--as a fuel and a food rather +than as a stimulant--and drawing upon my nerves for everything the drug +would not provide, I had kept going steadily and was finishing strong. + +There had been but one interruption since the night before. Early in the +forenoon Captain "Choppy" Tancred had called up to say that he had +brought his new command to anchor in the harbour the previous evening, +and that, as he had a good twenty-four hours' loading to do, he hoped +that we could find time to foregather for a bit of a yarn in the course +of the day. Would I come down and have lunch with him at the hotel, or +would he drive up to me? He would rather prefer the former, as the +barometer was down and he ought to remain where he could get off to his +ship in a hurry if it came on to blow. I made the best excuse my +wandering wits could frame, and hung up. The old boy's voluble protests +were still clicking in the receiver as I returned it to its hook. + +I had a hard time materializing my "model" again after that break, and +it was fifteen or twenty minutes before I was sure enough of it to +resume work. For a while, in the back of my brain, there was a flutter +of apprehension that old "Choppy" would take it into his head to come up +anyhow, and I was desperately afraid that I might not be able to +"connect" again after another interruption--that I would fail to focus +The Face at the one moment of all when I most needed it. There would +have been comfort in that thought twenty-four hours earlier, but by now +a desire to finish the portrait for its own sake seemed to have entered +into me. + +But my fears were groundless. "Choppy" was properly rebuffed, and had no +intention of poking in where he "wasna weelcom'." (He told me so himself +later.) There was no further interruption, save the negligible one of +Suey and the cracked ice, sharp on every hour. As the sunset faded and +the twilight flooded the valley with luminous purple mist, I was +finished--or nearly finished. The Face was all but complete on the +canvas now, and all but erased from my brain. It had taken an intense +effort of concentration to hold it while I put the last touch on that +writhen lip, as it curled back in a snarl from the bared teeth. But I +did it. And now--just a stroke in that whorl of iris to accentuate the +abnormal dilation, to fix the horror in that ghastly stare! Slowly the +image sharpened in my brain. Again the fear-haunted eyes held my own. +Now! I was just darting my delicately poised brush forward when the +sound of voices from the veranda arrested the colour-daubed tip a hair +short of the blurring eye its touch would have made a hopeless smudge. +"Maskey--no can do!" came in Suey's brusque _pidgin_; and then, +following a sudden scuffle and the sharp click of the latch, a familiar +chirrup floated to my ears. "Let me in, Whit-nee! Hur-ree, ple-ese, +Whit-nee!" was what it said. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + A SUDDEN VISITOR + + +As a rider reins in his stumbling horse, so did I rein in my stumbling +nerves. It was now or never, I told myself. If those final touches were +not given before I stirred from my tracks, they would never be given. I +closed my eyes and my ears--not with my hands but by a sheer effort of +will--and then, inch by inch, as though I were dragging it by the +throat, brought the phantom prototype back and forced it to merge with +the face on the canvas. The tip of my brush flashed twice, thrice. Then +I relaxed the tentacles of my will, and as the phantom face, receding, +blurred to blankness, it left behind, where a wisp of green-smeared +camel's hair had touched the canvas, an expression of hell-haunted +terror streaming from the unnaturally dilated eyes of the _completed_ +picture-face. + +I was breathing heavily, like a coolie who throws down his back-breaking +burden at the end of a hard climb, when I tossed aside my brush and +palette, but no wretch of a human pack-mule ever knew the depth of +relief that was mine. A carrier could only experience the physical +satisfaction of feeling his back was freed of a load: mine was the +spiritual ecstasy of knocking off the shackles that had threatened to +bind my soul. And now I was free to rush to the arms of the "Green +Lady"! No more need of rationing my absinthe. I spilled the remaining +contents of the bottle at my elbow in the bowl of half-melted cracked +ice, and wolfed it greedily over the tilted brim. + +"Ple-ese, Whit-nee, I have the great hur-ree." Again came the +click-clack of the imprisoned latch and the thud of a knee or shoulder +against the door. + +"One moment, Rona!" Steadied and alert, I set down the emptied bowl, +threw a hastily-snatched couch-cover over the canvas so that the space +upon which I had worked was hidden, and stepped to the door. Already I +felt the exaltation and relief of having banished the dread phantom. And +the picture face on the canvas--how easy it was to blot out! The hanging +corner of an old steamer-rug.... + +Rona pushed in eagerly as I swung back the door, Suey relaxing his +restraining grip and backing away noiselessly at my reassuring nod. All +the old verve showed in the girl's high-flung head and flashing eye. +Sullenness, depression, sadness alike were gone, replaced by an air of +eagerness, of suppressed excitement. She was still wearing the baggy +_holakau_ the lady missionaries had wished upon her, but with it--looped +over her breasts and under her shoulders _sarong_-fashion--was the +peacock shawl, outlining softly the lithe curves of shoulder and hip and +flowing clingingly in folds of amber and scintillant opalescence below +her knees. + +"Whit-nee, I come to make the good-bye," she gushed cooingly, catching +her breath. "Tonight I take boat go Seengapo. Whit-nee, I come here to +tell you I ver-ree sor-ree I make you troubl' 'bout the pick-yur. I +tella you lie, Whit-nee. I cannot--make--the pick-yur. Bel-la, he say--" + +At that instant a strange thing happened. Two or three times since she +entered the room, Rona's eyes, as though drawn there irresistibly, had +wandered from mine to what could have appeared to her no more than a +corner of plaid rug hanging over a broad blank of tightly stretched +canvas. She had done this again as she started to speak, and it was a +slight widening of her eyes that caused me to turn and follow her +glance. The hastily-flung rug was slowly slipping back off the easel. +The fringed corner hanging down in front was rising. Possibly a draught +from the open door had started the movement, or perhaps the swishing +blows a wind-lashed tree was dealing the side of the house. Whatever was +the cause, the effect was that of an invisible hand slowly drawing up a +curtain. + +Rona's tongue framed the sentence that was in her mind, but the +words came brokenly as her puzzled wonderment increased. As her +double-syllabled rendition of Bell's name fell from her lips the +accelerating slide of the curtain quickened to a run, and, with a flirt +of green fringe, the masking corner disappeared over the top of the +frame. The Face--"Slant" Allen's hell-haunted face, tortured and +terrible--glared out at her from the broad white field of the canvas. + +There was sheer amazement in the down-drop of the girl's lean jaw and a +suggestion of terror in the gasp with which she filled her deflated +lungs. But the piercing "_ey-yu_" with which that air was forced out +again was a battle-cry. Fortunately, I was standing a couple of paces +nearer the canvas than was she; but even with that handicap in my favour +it was a near squeak. I caught the gleam of a flashing blade and a quick +grab sunk my crooked fingers deep into the flesh of a thrusting arm. +Hurling the arrested figure back toward the door, I stooped and picked +up a knife--that beautifully balanced Portuguese throwing-knife that +Allen and I had been flinging at the swelling bole of the big +bottle-tree the previous Sunday. To this day I do not know whether Rona +thought she was attacking a reincarnation or a ghost, or was only bent +on destroying an uncannily life-like portrait that awakened savage +memories. + +I swished the fallen rug from under the easel and rehung it--evenly this +time--before turning to confront Rona, where she was readjusting--with +raised elbows and twinkling thumbs--the hitch of the peacock shawl in +the opposite corner of the room. She had scrambled to her feet again, +but gave no sign of returning to the attack. Her eyes were snapping with +anger and excitement, but I did not have the feeling that she +entertained any especial personal resentment against me for the rough +handling I had given her. + +"So it was you after all," I said slowly, fingering the tapering blade +of the tell-tale knife. + +Her lips moved as though in reply, but if she said anything coherent it +was drowned in the roar of a sudden gust of wind that buffetted the +bungalow at that moment. I turned to the girl again after closing the +north windows. Her eyes were fixed on vacancy now, and her head, with +the clean-cut chin slightly elevated, was turned sideways in an attitude +of listening. As the banging of the trees died down my own duller +tympana registered a new vibration--and yet not quite new--something +that I had heard very recently. Ah, now I had it! The baying of a hound, +very near and very eager. A red-hot scent beyond doubt, I told myself. +But why were Rawdon's "nigger-chasers" running at that hour, and into +the teeth of a rising hurricane? There was questioning in both our +glances as the girl's eyes met mine, but in hers certainly no hint of +fear. + +Before either of us spoke a firm, quick step sounded from the back of +the house, and a moment later, following a light tap on the door, Ranga +entered from my bedroom. If he was surprised at Rona's presence, or at +her somewhat dishevelled appearance, he gave no sign of it. Nor was +there about me--now that I was holding the knife behind my +back--anything to suggest to the Malay that he had stumbled upon a +situation in the least out of the normal. + +Tuan "Slant" was sleeping heavily, he said, and so he had snatched the +opportunity to come up for some of his own Borneo tobacco and a change +of clothes. They had nothing in the hospital large enough for him. Tuan +"Slant" was growing stronger in body, but--he finished by tapping his +temple and shaking his head dubiously. + +A heavier broadside of the gathering storm shook the house again, this +time sending a shudder through its stout frame and wringing a vibrant +_ping_ from the tautened "hurricane cables" that guyed its windward +corners. Out of the heart of that blast came the bell-mouthed baying of +the nearing hound. He was still sounding his clear bugle notes as he +swung in through the gate from the road, but down the driveway, with the +incense of the burning trail conjuring visions of an imminent quarry in +his brain, he began tearing his throat with harsh, savage yelps of +eagerness. I was looking for his charge to come against the closed front +door, but a sudden shower of claw-spurned gravel rat-a-tat-ing against +the glass of the French windows told that he had wheeled in his tracks +and was circling to the rear of the house. A yell and a clatter of +saucepans from the kitchen, a scramble of slipping claws upon the +hardwood floor of the back hallway, and in from the open door of my +bedroom--drooling-fanged, bloody-eyed and bloody-minded--came dashing +that black bolt of canine fury, closing on his cornered quarry for the +death-grapple. + +Ranga, on entering, had moved a step or two aside from the door, a +survival doubtless of his training at sea, where an idle man blocking a +companionway or a ladder is liable to be taught manners by a rap on the +head. Rona was still in the corner to which I had hurled her. I was at +the opposite corner, near the big canvas and twenty feet or more from +the girl. The flying hound tried to check himself at the doorway, but +the polished floor gave him no grip for his claws. Down on his haunches, +with forefeet poked rigidly ahead, he slid the full width of the room, +tobogganing on a smooth-running Samoan mat for the last half of the +distance. + +With the certainty of Rona's guilt fixed in my mind by her possession of +Allen's knife, I had no doubt, from the moment the hound's baying +indicated it had turned into the clearing, that it was hot on her trail. +But even so, the brute's entry by the bedroom door had been so +unexpected and so swift that I had not stirred from my tracks to the +girl's defence when the snarling animal, shooting across the room, +brought up against the wall close beside her. Even Ranga, leaping +forward instantly as he had, was scarcely past the middle of the floor +when the beast regained its balance and bearings almost at the girl's +feet. Drawing back into the angle of the walls and crouching low like a +cornered cat, Rona awaited the attack, while Ranga, barehanded, and I +with the throwing-knife rushed in to her aid. Without an instant's +hesitation, the savage beast spun to a full right-about and, brushing +the girl's advanced knee as though it was no more than the piano stool, +launched itself full at the throat of the yellow man. + +Ranga's counter was swift, sure and terrible. He might have been +fighting bloodhounds barehanded from childhood, for all the surprise and +dismay he showed at the sudden attack. Where my own instinct (if I had +not tried to side-step the charge completely) would have been to grapple +for the brute's throat from beneath, he simply struck--or rather +grabbed--down from above. The impact crushed the snarling beast to the +floor, but when Ranga raised his arm again he was gripping his +struggling canine adversary by the scruff of the neck. Or rather, I +thought it was the scruff. In reality his grip was a bit more inclusive. + +Holding the floundering black form at arm's length with no more effort +than if it had been a terrier, Ranga suddenly tightened his hold. I saw +the hound's red-lidded eyes grow slant and elongated like a Chinaman's +as the skin of its scalp was drawn backward in the relentless vise +closing from behind; then a grinding snick cut short an unearthly scream +of pain, and the hound was dangling limp and lifeless with a crumpled +spine at the end of a gibbet of knotted yellow muscle. Ranga tossed +lightly aside what a moment before had been a flying bolt of wrath, and +where the great head doubled under against a flowered chintz +window-curtain I saw the sprawling outline of a tooth-torn ear, +doubtless the scar of a fight with a luckier ending. + +In its strangely terrible tenseness, the electrically charged silence +that succeeded has no parallel in my experience. Not a word was spoken. +The only sound was the banging of the wind-wrenched trees against the +house and the nearing mutter of the thunder in the north. The +significance of the fact that it was Ranga the dog had been trailing was +lost upon neither Rona nor me, nor yet upon the big Malay himself. The +latter met my questioning glance steadily for a moment, but it was the +girl's piercing stare of fierce concentration that drew and held his +troubled black eyes. While one might have counted fifty those two stood +and (as I have since understood) communed with eye and mind. It was a +sudden thunder-clap that broke the connection and checked the interflow +of thought. Ranga had not winced at the blinding flash and +close-following crash, but Rona's higher strung nerves fluttered for an +instant, and the wire was down. But Ranga's words indicated that the +message was about complete. + +"Yes, I did it, Tuan," he said quietly, turning toward me as though +answering my unspoken question. "It had to be, Tuan, and--yes, I did +it." + +It was not until afterwards I recalled that it was to Rona I addressed +my protest. "But 'Slant' swore to me that he did not kill Bell; that he +was in no way responsible for his death, first or last." + +A spasm of passion twisted the girl's face to the seeming of an ape's as +she caught the drift of my words, and her reply was almost a scream. +"Not ke-el Bel-la? 'Slan' do worse than ke-el. He--" + +The chorus of the leashed pack that checked her words came from so close +at hand that it made itself heard above the now unbroken roar of the +storm. There was the clang of shod hoofs on a metalled road, too, and I +thought I could distinguish the shouts of men. The hunt was closing in +for the kill. + +"I think I go now, Tuan. I like the better to fight outside." Ranga's +voice was as quiet and controlled as when he had told me the news from +the hospital a few minutes before; but there was the lust of battle in +his flashing eyes, eagerness for action in the quick heave of his chest. + +There was no time to debate and decide the question as to who had +committed the outrage upon Hartley Allen, or of what justification +there might have been for it. One thing only was clear to me, and that +was that I was not going to throw either Rona or Ranga to the dogs--no, +nor to the law either--if there was any way of avoiding it. My mind--as +was always the case when I had fasted long and drunk absinthe +sparingly--worked with lightning swiftness. + +"Don't fight unless you have to," I said, stepping closer to Ranga as +the wind and thunder threatened to drown my voice. "Follow down the +stream over the falls. Jump won't hurt you--plenty of water at the +bottom. That'll throw off the dogs. Then follow the path by the flume +down to the sea. The rain'll kill your trail for the dogs. It ought to +be starting any minute now. Wait for me on the pier by the old sugar +mill. I'll come for you in a boat as soon as I can." + +Baring his teeth in a quick grin of comprehension, the big fellow +wheeled and started for the front door. I caught his arm and checked him +just in time. "This way!" I shouted. "Through my bedroom window. Beat +it! _Lekas!_" + +Again that intelligent tooth-flash of understanding. Ranga's +foreshortened bulk was making a blurred blot against the blue-green +lightning flash playing across the rear bedroom window as I turned to +answer a heavy banging at the front door. Everything considered, I have +always felt that I got away fairly well with the situation with which I +now found myself confronted. It was Harpool, the Chief of Police, who +staggered into the room, bracing back against the push of the still +rising wind. The flutter of the lightning revealed two or three horses +in the driveway, and three or four men following a bunch of howling dogs +around the corner of the house. + +I was on the point of opening up at the Chief with a facetious sally +about the way he was sending his hounds around to frighten my lady +visitors, when I chanced to glance to the corner where Rona had been, +and lo--I had no lady visitor! The girl was gone, but whether under the +couch or out of one of the windows I could not guess. So I only gaped +rather stupidly and said nothing, leaving the Chief to open the attack. +I was glad the face on the canvas was covered, and only wished there had +been time to throw something over the crumpled remnants of the big +black-and-tan. + +"I am quite satisfied it isn't you we want, Mr. Whitney," Harpool began, +with a shade of embarrassment, I thought. "But the fact remains that +Rawdon's hounds have followed a live scent straight to this house, and I +have every reason to believe they are on the trail of the man who tied +up Hartley Allen. Perhaps you can explain--" + +"I think I can," I cut in, anxious to gain time for the fugitive, but +realizing that no end would be served by trying to conceal his identity. +"You're right that it was a hot scent. Just a few degrees too hot for +your canine deputy there in the corner. It's the end of _his_ trail, I'm +afraid." + +The Chief strode over to the limp corpse and turned it with his foot. +"Who killed this hound?" he demanded angrily, regarding me suspiciously +for the first time. + +"Not I, Chief," I replied jauntily; "but can't you guess? You can see +for yourself that he hasn't been shot--or clubbed--or poisoned. Well, +then--look at that neck. Do you know of more than one man in these parts +capable of snapping a bloodhound's spine between his thumb and +forefinger?" (I added that little thumb-and-forefinger touch with malice +aforethought, for I wanted to impress upon Harpool--for whatever it +might be worth--that it was no old broken-down of a "Squid" Saunders +that he was going to try to run to earth out there in the darkness.) + +The Chief's honest eyes opened with amazement as the answer dawned upon +him. "You don't mean the big Malay?" he ejaculated incredulously. "Why, +he has been tending Allen like a sister for two days. Everyone in the +hospital has been speaking about his devotion." + +"No other," I answered. "Ranga came up from the hospital less than half +an hour ago to get a shift of togs. Five minutes later that hound came +tearing in through the back entrance and flew at his throat--right here +in my studio. You see the result. That fellow can drop a horse with his +fist--a dog is no more than a flea to him." + +"I can hardly believe it," said the Chief, shaking his head; "but the +fact remains that if the hound went for him, he's our man. I hope we +won't have to shoot him.... But Rawdon will never stand by and see his +dogs pinched out like that. This fellow was his best hound by a mile. +Drive him crazy when he finds it's been dished. Gawd, that neck might +have been run over by a steam tram! What in hell--" + +A bedlam of howls and yells and savage oaths rising from the rear of the +house at this juncture broke in upon the Chief and caused him to bolt on +the double through the door of the corridor leading to the kitchen. The +unearthly racket, with the rattle of pistol shots spattering through it, +made me certain that Ranga had run afoul of the hunt at his first jump. +Shuddering at the thought of the terrible fight that must ensue, I +pushed on after Harpool, reaching the further end of the corridor just +in time to catch his reeling form as he staggered back from a bullet +that had burned his scalp the instant he opened the kitchen door. +Astride the sill of a kicked-in window sat old Rawdon, his bearded face +distorted with fury and pain, coughing, sneezing, cursing, and firing +impartially at all parts of the long, low room. Under the sink, almost +at Rawdon's feet but quite out of pistol range, crouched Suey, blinking +blandly and rubbing his almond eyes. He it was who was the author of an +unpremeditated diversion which was the only thing in the world that +prevented Ranga being nabbed at the outset. + +The late black-and-tan, in following Ranga's trail, had entered the +kitchen by snapping his way through the light screen door. To prevent +his lines being thus penetrated a second time, the foxy Celestial, when +he heard the main pack rallying to the attack, closed and bolted the +heavy outside door of his domain and, with a little surprise packet in +his hand, took station beside the little swinging window above the sink. +Waiting with true Oriental restraint till the clamouring enemy was +compactly bunched upon the porch outside, Suey gently raised the screen +and emptied the contents of a can of red pepper into their midst. The +paprika appeared to have been pretty fairly divided between three of the +most oncoming of the dogs and their equally forward master. The hounds +quit for the night, then and there, but the old bushranger's fighting +spirit urged him on to make the best stand he could with his automatic. +Considering the way he was being racked with coughs and sneezes, and +that he only blazed away at the creak of an opening door his streaming +eyes could not locate, his shot that welcomed the Chief was by no means +uncreditable. It cut a neat furrow through Harpool's stubby pompadour +and even drew a drop or two of blood. + +The Chief's fervent swearing stayed Rawdon's murderous hand just as he +had finished fumbling a fresh clip of cartridges into his emptied +"thirty-eight" and was about to start fusillading anew. Roaring mad as +he was, his first thought was for the dogs. "Get a wet rag round the +muzzles o' Dingo an' Jackaroo 'fore you let 'em inter this 'ell 'ole," +he growled between sneezes. "Our bloke's somew'ere in this 'ere 'ouse," +he went on, laving his smarting eyes at the water-tap of the sink above +Suey's jack-knifed form. "Don't let 'im slope by the front door, Chief, +now we've got 'im in 'is 'ole." + +"Sloped already," snapped Harpool laconically, adding that most of the +sloping had been done while Rawdon was setting his dogs on a "bally +Chink cook." In a few terse sentences the Chief explained the way things +stood, giving it as his opinion that their man would be trying to follow +the stream right across the plantation and down through the belt of bush +to the mangrove swamps. The loss of the big black-and-tan was so great a +calamity for the old bushranger that it had the effect of sobering +rather than further exciting him. His red rage burned white and flamed +inwardly rather than outwardly. "I'll know 'ow to even up for 'im +killin' Starlight w'en I gets that bloody wombat in a patch o' dry bush. +Nice bit o' a torch that greasy 'ulk o' 'im'll make. Come along! We'll +'ave a better chance o' makin' a quick bag if we get 'im in sight 'fore +the rain starts." + +There were still left two dogs with undamaged "noses." Fearful that +these, if they took the bridle-path down the right side of the creek, +might pick up Ranga's trail where he would have left the stream at the +pool, I made bold to suggest a plan calculated to carry them wide of +that danger point. "Why don't you ford here," I said, "and push straight +across the plantation to the end of the big loop the stream makes round +the nigger village? Your man will be all of an hour making that point if +he wades by the stream. You can make it through the cane in twenty +minutes and be waiting there to bag him." + +The Chief was inclined to favour the plan--until Rawdon cut in +sarcastically with: "An' wot's to pervent the bloody bloke's givin' us +the slip a 'undred times 'tween 'ere an' there? One hound down each side +o' the stream--that's the only way to be sure o' clappin' our 'ooks +inter 'im." + +That was sound reasoning of course--from Rawdon's standpoint,--and I +didn't dare urge my plan any further. Ten minutes later, when a sudden +eager baying came down the wind from the direction of the waterfall, I +felt sure my worst fears were realized. It was, therefore, with only the +faintest hopes of success, that I pulled myself together to take the +first step in making good my promise to pick up Ranga at the pier of the +old sugar mill. + +The priceless Suey had crawled out from under the sink as the sounds of +the hunt grew faint, and turned to tidying the kitchen as though +cleaning up after a pack of bloodhounds was just a pleasant little +incidental of the day's work. When I ordered him to get me out a fresh +bottle of absinthe he did not even forget the cracked ice. I told him I +should probably be away for most of the night, and that if Rona showed +up in the interim to see that she was made comfortable till my return. +"All lightee girl-ee. Otha fell-ee too much peppa can have," he said +decisively. I told him to do what he liked to Rawdon, but to give the +Chief a shake-down if he asked for it. + +Quaffing a couple of glasses of raw absinthe, I filled a flask, pulled +on a pair of riding-boots and a raincoat, and pushed out onto the +veranda. The wind had not increased greatly in force, but the lightning +and thunder were flashing and crashing almost simultaneously overhead, +and the first big drops of rain were beginning to spatter. The moon was +hidden behind a dense pall of black cloud, so that it was by the +incessant flicker of the lightning that I sized up the three +saddle-horses tied at the side of the driveway and picked the rangy +waler of the Chief as the likeliest rough-weather beast. I had no +compunction to taking him, as the bunch would be breaking away anyhow as +soon as the sagging bottom of the cloud overhead dropped its contents on +them. I preferred not to have my own saddle-horse left standing in the +town if it could be avoided. There would be enough tell-tale posts on +the course I was going to try to negotiate without deliberately planting +another one. + +The cane fields in the valley were glistening with the opening volleys +of the rain as I spurred across the clearing, stabbing the night with +silver gleams in the lightning flashes as the bayonets of massed troops +throw off the rays of the sun. The wind was behind me as far as the main +road; then side-on, but broken by the wall of the thick-growing trees. I +put the waler at top speed, anxious to cover all the distance possible +while the footing was good. I was halfway to town before the storm let +go in real earnest, and from then on it was about as much of a swim as a +ride, especially after the hillsides began to spill off on the lower +levels. My mount was a sensible beast, evidently no stranger to tropical +cloudbursts. He took the initiative readily when I ceased to urge him, +and kept plugging right on through the storm at a good steady +business-like jog. Nothing but my good fortune in getting a jump on the +rain prevented my going out in this first lap of my race, as all of the +four bridges I had to cross must have washed away within a very few +minutes from the time I put them behind me. Indeed, one of the two +horses I had left in the driveway, after both had broken away as I had +anticipated, was drowned in trying to flounder through an open crossing. + +The worst of the terrific downpour was over as I rode into the town, but +the wind--as was to be expected--was blowing with increased force. +Everyone had been driven indoors by the rain, so that it was in an empty +street I dismounted and left my horse, knowing that he would be pawing +at his own stable door within a very few minutes. The rest of the way to +the landing I covered on foot. As I had feared, the creek was empty of +launches. I would have to see what could be done at the Burns, Phillip +offices, which, busy with manifests and other odds and ends of business +incident to an imminent steamer sailing, were still lighted up. It was +an alternative I was very reluctant to resort to, as I had been hoping +that my visit to Captain Tancred might be managed on the quiet. Just as +I turned to go a red light, bobbing past the outer end of the jetty, +caught the tail of my eye, and, on the off chance that it might be a +craft I could hire, I held on at the steps. Smartly handled in the nasty +cross-lop, a small but powerful steam launch bumped in alongside the +landing stage. + +"Can I get you to take me off to the _Mambare_?" I demanded of the +uniformed youth who came bounding up the steps. + +"Glad to do it, sir. This is her launch," was the cheery reply. "Just in +for clearance papers. Be back in a jiffy. Climb aboard and make yourself +comfy in the cabin." Then, as an apparent afterthought: "You're sailing +with us, aren't you? Can't take off visitors at this hour. No way to get +back. Getting under way at midnight." He had so little doubt that I was +a belated passenger, perhaps delayed by the rain, that my nod was quite +sufficient to reassure him. Five minutes later we were shoving off for +the run back to the line of lights where the _Mambare_ tugged at her +moorings. + +The sea was white with foam outside the jetties, but with waves and wind +almost dead astern the sturdy little launch made very comfortable +weather of it. It was by no means as bad as it had been coming in, said +the young officer, who turned out to be a freight clerk. As the gangway +was already raised and the launch had to come in anyway, we remained +aboard her and were hoisted right up and swung in to the chocks on the +_Mambare's_ boat-deck. My companion hurried at once to his office to go +over his pouch of papers, while I, locating it without asking anyone for +directions, went forward to the Captain's cabin under the bridge. + +The faint shadow of constraint on Captain Tancred's face as I entered +disappeared the instant his ready mind divined I had come to him for +help. "So they're after ye at last, lad," he said, sympathy and +satisfaction queerly blended in his deep voice. "Weel, noo, tell me a' +aboot it. I ken we'll be findin' a way oot for ye." + +I told him all that he needed to know as quickly as possible, making a +point, however, of omitting to state that the man I wanted him to +smuggle away to the Islands had confessed to committing the outrage upon +Hartley Allen. "Slant" was an old friend of "Choppy's," and I felt sure +that the latter, far from being a witting party to helping the man who +had attacked him escape from justice, would undoubtedly lend every aid +to placing him where he would receive his just deserts. Luckily, the +quixotic old Scot was not a man to ask searching questions. He was +plainly disappointed that it was not I who was fleeing the law, but +there was ready consolation in the fact that a friend of mine, in very +sore straits, might be saved from being torn to pieces by a pack of +bloodhounds if he was picked up at a certain point on the north coast +before morning. + +We located the cove of the old sugar mill on the chart without +difficulty, and in his bulky volume of "Sailing Directions" found the +comforting assurance that it afforded especially good shelter in a +northerly blow. There was no surf, it was stated, and the shore was +almost steep-to. This was all in our favour. He was sailing at midnight, +the Captain said. The hurricane was central over the New Hebrides, so it +was only the tail of it flirting across the Great Barrier--nothing he +would dream of sticking in harbour for. Doubtless he would be able to +find an excuse to heave-to off the cove, while I piloted the launch in +to get our man. Then, if I didn't care to return and take a pleasure +voyage with him to Insulinde and the Straits, I could drop off and make +the best of my way home. + +The Captain had just finished telling me how he had made a point of +bringing his old launch crew with him from the _Utupua_--"the lads I use +for speshul wark, ye ken"--when the freight clerk who had brought me off +entered the cabin with a number of papers and letters. On the top of the +pile was a red envelope marked "Rush." "Choppy" tore the letter open at +once. The up-flop of his grizzled side-burns at the sudden flexing of +the jaw muscles at their roots gave me warning of the coming jolt. + +"We'll nae be gettin' under wa' the nicht, Ryerson," he said quietly to +the freight clerk. "Will ye be sae guid as to bid the Chief an' the Mate +to step this wa'. Mair carga the morrow," he added by way of +explanation. To the Chief Engineer, when he came, the Captain merely +countermanded an order for steam on the capstan at seven bells, and +warned him to keep the pressure in the boilers high for fear the steamer +might part a mooring cable if the wind increased. The Mate he ordered to +be ready to handle a consignment of silver bullion and ingot copper that +would come in a tug from the _Moresby_ as soon as she arrived from the +south in the morning. He also told him to have the crew of the steam +launch called away at once, so as to put "yon gentleman" ashore as +quickly as possible. If the Mate was lively about it, "Choppy" +suggested, he might find that the fires of the launch had not yet been +drawn from her trip to the landing. If so, that would save time in +getting up steam. + +Not until all of this was ordered did he turn to me with: "The de'il's +ain luck, lad. Nae gettin' awa' afore eight bells, noon, the morrow. +Shipment frae Broken Hill catchin' up wi' us in the _Moresby_." + +"That means that the game's up and you're sending me back because +there's no hope of doing anything?" I asked in dismay. + +"Nae, nae, lad," he soothed. "No' so fast. Just a wee bit o' a shift o' +program, that's a'. True I'm sendin' ye ashore in the launch, but when +she comes back I'm hopin' tae find oor mon in yer place. Do ye ken noo +wha' I'm drivin' at?" + +"Do you mean to send the launch all the way round from here?" I demanded +in astonishment; "and then to keep him aboard here in the harbour for +ten or twelve hours before you sail? Isn't that asking for trouble both +ways? Even if the launch stands up against the gale outside, aren't you +done for if they come off from town and make a search of the steamer?" + +Old "Choppy's" blue eyes twinkled merrily at the latter suggestion. The +police never did seem to have any luck in searching his ships, he +laughed. As for the launch--it was new, its engine was unusually +powerful, and it would have "Pisco" at the wheel. "Pisco," he explained, +was a Chilean who had been with him for years, and had never been known +to fail at a pinch. He thought that combination ought to win out. I +didn't mind a bit of slap-banging off the point, did I? That settled it. +If he was willing to risk his own launch and his own career to save _my_ +friend, it was not for me to hang back. Fifteen minutes later we had +been lowered over the side and were rounding under the _Mambare's_ fine +clipper bows into the teeth of the gusty norther. It had been agreed +that I should pilot "Pisco" to the rendezvous and deliver my man into +his care. "Choppy" undertook to do the rest. + +What the hard-bit old sea-dog had characterized as a "bit o' +slap-banging" off the point proved to be a frontal attack upon as +ruffianly a bunch of headseas as it was ever my lot to face in anything +smaller than a ninety-ton schooner. Stoutly built and over-engined as +she was, the launch was quite equal to the task of driving her nose +through the waves, but--not being built for submarine service--proved a +dismal failure at getting rid of the solid green water that deluged her +as a consequence. Knot by knot, cursing fluently in picturesque _roto_ +Spanish the while, "Pisco" rang down the engine, until finally the +pugnacious little craft ceased tunnelling the bases of the seas and +contented herself with boring neat round holes in their curling crests. +By this method she shipped no more water than her scuppers could put +back where it came from. The only fear now was that enough spray might +splash down her squat funnel to quench the fires, and to minimize the +chances of this, the resourceful "Pisco" made the lookout stand so that +his broad chest would receive and deflect the heaviest rushes of the +threatening flood. Fortunately, the distance to be run head-on to the +seas was comparatively short. Once round the point the alteration of +course brought the wind and the waves on the starboard beam, and though +she now just about rolled her side-lights under, it was fairly quiet +going compared to the buffeting outside. + +I gave "Pisco" his course for the first leg in by the lights of the big +sugar central, and then, as we opened up the inner bay, gave him a +bearing on the notch--barely guessable against the overcast west--where +the old cartroad grade pierced the brow of the cliff. The clouds were +racing overhead and the baffling cross-gusts on the surface would have +made it bad business for a sailing craft. But for a launch the task was +a comparatively simple one. The loom of the old mill was discernible +against the darker opacity of the cliff at a couple of hundred yards, +and the right-angling lines of the pier at half that distance. As the +latter was sure to have been built of the eternally-lasting _jarra_, I +knew that it would be as solid and serviceable as the day it was +abandoned. + +I had not thought it best to risk dampening Captain Tancred's enthusiasm +by confessing that I thought it was a good ten-to-one against my man's +turning up at the rendezvous. Indeed, I could see no grounds whatever +for hoping that Ranga had shaken the pursuit--already at his heels--and +won through to the appointed place. Nothing short of a miracle could +have compassed it, I told myself. It was on the off chance that the +miracle had been wrought that I was keeping my promise. + +"'Bout half a point to sta'boa'd, Tuan. Way nuf now! Steady!" That deep +rumbling voice from the darkness was a welcome surprise. "Pisco," +heeding the quiet directions, brought his launch alongside the broad +solid flight of steps as neatly as he would have laid her up to the +_Mambare's_ gangway in broad daylight. + +Ranga was coming down the steps--with a slowness which I attributed to +the fact that they were probably very slippery--when I heard a thud on +the deck behind me, such a sound as a heavy, soft bundle thrown down +from above might have made in striking. A second or two later there was +an ejaculation of astonishment somewhere aft, probably from "Pisco," I +thought, as the words were Spanish. I did not try to puzzle out the +purport of them at the moment, as my attention was occupied with Ranga, +who seemed to be hesitating at the last moment about coming aboard. +Twice or thrice he drew back his foot from the rail, as though uncertain +of his balance. And when the great bulk of him finally did surge +forward, it was with a lurch that took all my strength to check it and +prevent his reeling on across the narrow bow and over the other side. He +steadied himself slowly, with a great intake of breath. "Sorry--make +trouble,--Tuan. Now--I go aft." + +"I am leaving you here, Ranga," I said quickly, for I was getting +nervous about a movement of lights I had observed along the flume in the +rear of the big sugar mill. "Captain Tancred will look after you on the +steamer, and put you off wherever you want to go. He also has some money +for you. Good luck!" + +The big fellow took a long shuddering breath, and when he spoke it was +as though he had rallied himself from a spell of faintness by sheer +force of will. "Some day, Tuan--I pay you back--for all you do. So +long." He turned with painful deliberation and started to edge along +aft. I was a bit surprised that he had not grasped my extended hand, but +could not be sure that he had been aware of it in the dark. It did not +occur to me until afterwards that he had not used his own hands on the +rail of the stairway in descending, and that he had seemed to shoulder +his way back to the cockpit rather than to grope. I waited until his +swaying shoulders ceased to blot the blinking of the phosphorescent seas +astern, and then swung off to the stairs. + +"All clear!" I called softly to "Pisco," as I felt the solid step +underfoot. "Shove off when you're ready. _Buena fortuna!_" + +It was doubtless "Pisco's" ejaculation in Spanish a few moments before, +lurking in the back of my mind, that prompted me to speed the spirited +coxswain in his own tongue. On the heels of that "_Buena fortuna!_" the +words he had spoken flashed up in my memory. "_Cristo! Porque la +muchacha?_" It could hardly have been a sarcastic dig at Ranga's +hesitancy in stepping aboard, I reflected as I mounted the +slippery--astonishingly slippery--steps. He would not have expressed it +quite that way in that case. A sudden slip in a slimy patch at the head +of the steps put an end to conjecture for the moment, and when I +regained my feet the answer was written across the cabin doorway of the +turning launch. The lamp inside had--purposely--been turned very low, +and the blurred silhouette of the figure that came groping out to where +Ranga had collapsed on a cockpit transom might easily have been that of +any one of old "Choppy's" true and tried launch crew. But wet amber silk +reflects a deal of light, and there was only one peacock shawl in the +world--or in that neck of the world at least. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + DOWN THE FLUME + + +The lights had disappeared from the flume as I turned to go, and, rather +than take the chance of another fall, I decided to use my small electric +torch in finding a solid footing. The lacquered crimson reflection of +the fluttering disc of light instantly revealed the cause of the +slipperiness I had encountered. The whole end of the pier was +criss-crossed with thick trails of blood, with great spreading pools +here and there where, whoever shed it, had stood or sat. The blood on my +hands and raincoat, where they had come in contact with Ranga's reeling +frame, proved beyond a doubt that he was badly hurt. That explained his +unsteadiness on his feet, and also the fact that he had avoided shaking +hands with me. Very likely, indeed, his hands were unfit to use. Tired +to the verge of exhaustion though I was, my blood leaped at the thought +of the battle royal the splendid fellow must have fought--and won. I was +expecting to come upon traces of the fight at any moment as I picked my +way in past the ruined mill to the foot of the old grade leading to the +top of the cliff. + +As I left the planking of the pier behind two sets of footprints +appeared in the wet, firm earth of the path at the side of the road. +Both were made by bare feet, but the larger ones--plainly Ranga's--were +broken and irregular, and saturated with blood. There could be no doubt +that his feet, like his hands, were frightfully torn. The small prints +pressed very close to the side of the large, indicating that Rona was +either supporting the wounded giant or being supported by him. From the +fact that the smaller impressions were deeply indented, I figured that +the former was the case--that she was helping him. The girl, evidently, +was not badly hurt--perhaps not at all. + +Where the path I was following joined the bridle-road at the brink of +the cliff, the trail of blood turned off down the foot of the flume +toward the big sugar mill. The battle royal must have been fought +somewhere in the depths of the dense tropical growth that filled the +rocky fissure in the cliff followed by the flume. What grim secret the +black hole held would have to wait for the coming day to reveal. My way +home led in the opposite direction, and there was some question in my +mind as to whether or not I had the strength for the full course. + +Fortunately for me the flume had been built along ridges and high +ground, so that the trail following it had not been exposed to heavy +flooding in the torrential rains of the early evening. I found it hard +and firm underfoot for the most part, and by no means hard to follow +without resorting to my electric torch. It would have been very easy +going had I not been so nearly all in, but even as it was, by using my +absinthe sparingly as I had done while painting, I managed to keep +plugging steadily on toward home. + +At one time something very near a panic seized me for a while, when the +thought flashed through my mind that the great quantity of Ranga's blood +soaked up by my boots and my clothes would undoubtedly leave a trail +that Rawdon's hounds, should they chance to nose into it, would be quite +justified in mistaking for that of the Malay himself. Even if I +succeeded in holding the beasts off with my revolver, my presence there, +and in such a state, would call for a lot of explaining. If the Chief +once became suspicious, I told myself, it would undoubtedly upset my +plans to get Ranga away, to say nothing of involving both myself and +Captain Tancred in a serious scrape. I was in a miserable state of funk +until the cheering thought entered my head that Ranga had probably +killed not only the dogs, but probably Rawdon and the Chief as well. +That reflection reassured me immensely, and, buoyed in mind and body, I +trudged on confidently to the foot of the waterfall. + +I had noticed from time to time along the way that the flume, in its +less inclined stretches, was overflowing its sides. The reason for this +became evident when I reached the intake, at the side of the pool under +the falls, where I discovered that the gate, usually only partly raised, +was wide open. A flow of more than double the normal was rushing out of +the rain-swollen stream and into the flume. + +I was too tired to speculate upon how this might have happened. It was +touch-and-go with my tottering knees all the way up the steep, slippery +path to the top of the cliff; but, with three or four breathing spells +and the last of my absinthe, I managed it, and came out at last upon the +greensward rimming the bathing-pool under my bedroom window. It was +comparatively quiet here, now that the roar of the falls was deadened by +distance, which was doubtless the reason that I heard for the first time +a racket from the other side of the plantation that must have been going +on right along. It was rather a lucky thing that I _did_ hear that noise +before I turned in. Had I not done so, it is hardly likely that it would +have occurred to me that it might be a wise precaution to remove my +boots before entering the house, and then to strip off and burn +carefully in the kitchen range everything that I had been wearing. It +was all I could do to keep awake until the irksome job was over, but, +since it was evident from the ki-yi-ing and cursing that was floating +down the wind that Ranga had not made a clean sweep of Rawdon and his +pack, I reckoned that it well might be the means of preventing +unpleasant complications. + +My arduous climb up from the old sugar mill had served a useful purpose +in one respect. The hard physical exercise had sweated the poison of the +absinthe out of my system and relaxed the near-to-breaking tension my +nerves had been under for thirty-six hours. I fell into a good normal +hard-workingman's sleep the moment the mosquito-net closed behind me. +And the best of it was that, when a pandemonium outside awakened me a +little after sun-up, I tumbled out upon my feet in full possession of +all my faculties. This was a mighty fortunate circumstance, for the +rather delicate situation with which I was confronted called for +something better on my shoulders than the usual "absinthe-holdover" +head. + +Harpool and Rawdon, it appeared, had experienced a beastly night. Losing +a hot scent that had been picked up at the foot of the waterfall +immediately after leaving the bungalow, they had been forced to take +refuge in one of the labour villages during the deluge. Dragged out by +the bloodthirsty Rawdon before the rain had ceased to fall, they had +spent the night "working" the fringes of the bush in the hope of +stumbling upon the trail of the elusive fugitive. The net result of this +was the drowning of two more hounds and the driving of the baffled +bushranger to the verge of distraction. Returning, dead beat, in the +early dawn, they had encountered, at the intake of the flume, a scent so +strong that even the paprika-dosed noses of Suey's victims followed it +readily. Swarming up the cliff in full cry, the hunt came on to whirl in +a mad war dance round the bungalow and put a period to my morning +slumbers. + +The maniacal Rawdon was the worst difficulty, and I honestly believe +that only the Chief's restraining presence saved me from the necessity +of winging him with a revolver bullet to prevent his setting fire to the +bungalow. That "bloody wombat" had dodged him once from that shack and +he wasn't going to take chances on its happening again. The Chief and I +finally induced him to leave his "ring of death" intact round the +bungalow and come in and search for himself. That gave me a chance for a +quiet word with Harpool, whom I did not want to have push on to town for +fear he would start a search that might extend to the _Mambare_. Indeed, +he admitted he was afraid that his man might have doubled back to +Townsville and got off to the Singapore boat, which had doubtless sailed +at midnight. He had lost a badly-wanted counterfeiter a fortnight ago +that way. The skippers never seemed very keen to co-operate in a search +of their ships. Too many little smuggling games of their own probably. + +I suggested to Harpool that he have a bath, a change of clothes--my togs +were about his size--and a snack of early breakfast. Afterwards--since +his horse was gone--I would drive him down in my trap. In the meantime +he could ring up the Police Station and give any orders he thought +desirable by 'phone. (This latter suggestion I made in full knowledge of +the fact that the line must be down for over a mile. I had seen myself +where uprooted trees were responsible for wide hiatuses.) If it was in +any way possible without arousing his suspicions, it was my intention to +detain Harpool until I was sure the _Mambare_ had sailed. + +The Chief fell in with my suggestion readily, and felt so much bucked up +after a bath and a couple of whiskies-and-soda that he did not appear +seriously upset when the telephone turned an irresponsive ear to him. +Like the straightforward gentleman he was, he accepted at once my +assurance that Ranga had not entered the house again, and took no hand +in Rawdon's wild scrimmages, which carried him from cellar to garret +with no other result than the brushing of a bit more of the bloom off +"Honeymoon Bungalow" with the soles of his hobnailed boots. Madder than +ever after his vain search, he surlily refused my invitation to remain +for a cup of the coffee that his Chink friend of the night before was +already preparing in the kitchen, and slogged off down the road, +followed by three draggled hounds and two cursing helpers. I was a good +deal cheered by the thought that it was unlikely that any of them would +be getting through to town, without swimming, for another twelve hours +at least. + +Before he left Rawdon turned over to the Chief the little piece of red +rag he had been using to put the dogs on the scent with. It was at this +time that Harpool told me of "Squid" Saunders' suggestion, and of the +visit to the schooner in search of a clue. I did not tell him that I +recognized the rag as one which Ranga had used to wrap his little Malay +flute in, and that it had undoubtedly been left there the morning the +big fellow helped carry Hartley Allen to the quarantine launch. It was +interesting, however, to know that Ranga was absolutely guiltless of the +outrage to which he had confessed. I thought I could just conceive how a +well-guarded passion for the girl might have prompted that chivalrous +attempt to shield her from suspicion; but why had Rona herself committed +the ghastly crime?--and how? It was many months before I was to have an +answer to those questions, and they came from the lips of the last +person from whom I could have expected them. + +Direct and straightforward as ever, Harpool was visibly impressed by my +suggestion that Ranga had probably remained hidden near the fall until +the pursuit had passed, and after returning to the bungalow and finding +it dark, had retraced his steps and adopted the desperate expedient of +trying to escape the dogs by riding down the flume. That reminded him +that they had found the gate of the intake closed when they first +reached it, and that it had occurred to him at the time that the +fugitive might have done this so that he could walk down the bottom of +the flume without risk of being carried away by the water. This would +account for the patch of scent the hounds found at that point. The Chief +said that he was for pushing along the path by the flume, but that +Rawdon scouted his theory, insisting that their man had jumped back into +the water and gone on wading downstream. The hound-master had carried +his point, but, to be on the safe side, they had ratcheted up the gate +to its full aperture and turned a stream down the flume heavy enough, he +was afraid, almost to carry the sugar mill into the sea. And that +reminded me (though, obviously, I could not speak of it) that I had not +heard the roar of the mill's machinery when I paused at the brow of the +cliff. There was no doubt it was hung up for some reason. Was it +possible that Ranga had made his escape after coasting right down into +the crushing gear? But of course not. He would never have been able to +get away unpursued, even if he had survived. + +I welcomed for two reasons Harpool's suggestion that we ride down the +flume and investigate as soon as breakfast was over. It would keep him +away from town until the _Mambare_ had sailed for one thing, and, for +another, it would give me a chance to fathom the mystery that lay at the +end of that trail of blood leading down into the rift in the cliff. It +seemed probable to me that both Rona and Ranga, after the former had +overtaken him--probably at the foot of the fall--had started down the +flume on foot. Whether there would be any indications of what had +befallen when the water overtook them remained to be seen. + +The gate was still wide open when we rode along beside the intake, but +halfway down to the coast we met a man from the mill who said that he +was going up to shut the flow off so that a break near the lower end +could be repaired. The wires were down from the storm, he said, making +it impossible to 'phone directions to the plantation office. The break +was a bit of a mystery, he added. Flume opened right out. There were +indications that some large animal--perhaps a bullock--had been carried +down--probably washed in at the upper end while the stream was at flood. +Funny part of it was, though, that there was no trace to be found of the +bullock below the break. Must have been washed right on into the sea. + +Harpool pushed on eagerly after hearing that significant piece of news, +and we reached the head of the first steep pitch at the top of the cliff +some minutes before the water had ceased to flow. As I did not care to +have the Chief discover the trail of blood leading down to the sea for a +while yet, I proposed that we tie our horses here and walk down the top +of the flume on a narrow board that evidently had been placed there for +the use of workmen when repairs were necessary. It proved ticklish +going--both on account of the incline and the elevation,--but nothing to +trouble seriously a man with a sure foot and a steady head. Harpool, who +was up first, led the way, I following closely. + +If the power of the flying bolt of water in the bottom of the flume had +been impressive on the occasion of my first visit, it was a vast deal +more so now, both on account of the greatly increased volume of flow and +because of my certain knowledge that a human being--perhaps two of +them--had gone down that chute, where I had been assured that a team of +bullocks could not hold a man--and survived. + +The foot-wide board on which we were walking was nailed to the left side +of the flume. The top of the right side was a rough line of unplaned +two-inch pine planks. Harpool had only taken a step or two when he +brought up short with an exclamation of surprise and horror. "Look at +that top board on the other side!" he shouted; "raw, red meat all the +way from here right out of sight round the bend at the bottom!" + +I looked, shuddered, shuffled my feet uncertainly, and brought my +staring eyes back to the precarious footing. "Push on!" I implored +quaveringly; "my head's beginning to swim as it is." + +The roar of violently falling water came to my ears as we rounded the +bend at the lower end of the steep incline, and just ahead was the +break. The whole right or seaward side of the flume had opened out and +the flood was pouring to the rocks below in a spreading forty-feet-high +cataract. The ghastly smear along the top ran on unbroken, right out to +the end of a loose plank, which was kicking spasmodically under the +impulse of the released stream of water shooting under it. The Chief, +pointing to a ragged fragment of bloody cuticle, wedged in a joint of +the line of boards on which we were standing, delivered himself of what +I believe was his only approximately correct diagnosis of any feature of +the whole affair. + +"The fact that piece of skin and toe-nail were torn off on this side of +the flume directly opposite the bulge," he said, "would seem to indicate +that the brake our man made of his right arm flung over the top plank of +the other side must have finally brought him to a stop here. Then he +must have doubled up crosswise of the flume, with his feet against the +place where that skin is torn off and his back against the end of that +plank that is sprung loose. When he straightened out that great rack of +bone and muscle of his something had to give way, and it seems to have +been the flume. Probably the force of the water, where his body +deflected it against the side, was of some help; but it must have come +jolly near to staving in his ribs where it drove into him at right +angles." + +"Perhaps it did," I said. "We can't tell till we find him." I was not +anxious to hurry up the search by any means; but I felt that it would be +better to move on to a place where I could grow dizzy without the risk +of plunging forty feet onto a pile of broken rocks. The Chief, with +ready consideration, hastened forward, and my faintness passed quickly +when I felt the solid floor of the crushing level of the mill beneath my +feet. + +It appeared that they had knocked off early the previous evening for +want of cane. At the time, the superintendent said, he thought the flume +had been carried away by flood water. He had only evolved the bullock +theory when he went out at daylight and found the blood and meat smeared +along the planks. The bullock must have got wedged in finally, he +thought, and the water had piled up behind it and sprung out the side. +They had not found the carcass yet, but, as there was a very sharp slope +down to an in-reaching neck of the cove, it was not impossible that the +rush of water had rolled it right on into the sea. Neither Harpool nor +myself thought it worth while to ask him if he had found any bullock's +hair among the "meat." + +Going down through the silent mill to reach a lower level before +doubling back to the foot of the flume, a weird sort of sputtery peeping +caught my ear while we were traversing the boiling-room. Something +vaguely familiar in the sound caused me to trace it to its source behind +one of the big vats. The _virtuoso_ proved to be a lanky Australian +sugar-boiler, whiling away the idle hour blowing across the holes in a +queer little bamboo flute. One of the blacks had found it in the last +run of the _bagasse_--the crushed cane--a while ago, he explained. +Someone must have dropped it in the flume. Funny thing that it had been +so slightly crushed in coming through the rollers. He gave it to me +readily when I told him that I was a collector of primitive musical +instruments. Said he had a much better one--made in Germany and all +bound with brass--in his home in Maryborough. I took it on the off +chance that I might some day be able to give it back to Ranga. I knew +how greatly he was attached to it, and, since flutes like that were only +made in one little pile-built village on the coast of Ambon, how hard a +time he would have to replace it. + +I played up the superintendent's "washed-into-the-sea" theory for the +Chief's benefit as long as I could, but finally he circled round and hit +the double trail of footprints that led down to the end of the old pier. +The idea that Ranga had ridden the flume alone was so firmly rooted in +his mind however, that he agreed at once with my suggestion that the +smaller prints must have been made by an idle boy from the hung-up mill, +who had perhaps trailed the blood on his own account, in the hope of +getting the bullock meat. As I myself had made a point of keeping on the +grass to the side of the path, my trail of the night was not discovered. + +"The poor devil must have thrown himself over here and been finished by +the sharks and 'gators," Harpool shouted up to me from where, at the +foot of the steps of the old pier, he stood beside the black-filmed pool +that had drained from Ranga's wounds as he steadied himself for a few +moments before lurching over to the bow of the launch. The Chief also +said something more about coming back with a boat next day and searching +the beach for anything that might remain. I didn't follow him very +closely, for, just at that moment, a trim clipper bow slid out past the +end of the southern point. Knowing a certain old brass-cylindered +spy-glass would be training landward from the bridge that followed, I +opened and closed my arms swiftly in a surreptitious wave of farewell. +Good old "Choppy" must have been standing very close to the +whistle-cord, for his reply came instantly. The wind carried the toots +that must have sprung from the heart of two woolly steam-puffs in the +opposite direction, but I caught the message just the same. "All's +well!" was what old "Choppy" signalled in answer to my wave. His +"puff-puff" talk was a deal easier to understand than his English. + +I was no longer in Australia when the _Mambare_ returned from her maiden +voyage to Singapore, so her skipper's report came to me in Paris by +letter. He had put both of my friends ashore in Macassar, he said, safe, +sound and comfortably heeled for "siller." He had become much attached +to both of them in the course of the voyage, and couldn't thank me +enough for putting him in the way of giving them a bit of a lift. He +trusted I wouldn't fail to command him whenever another opportunity of +the kind presented itself. + +The night that I sent Rona and Ranga off from the pier of the old sugar +mill in the _Mambare's_ launch marked the beginning of one of the +strangest and most picturesque friendships the Islands ever knew; +picturesque in the striking background the strongest and most +terribly-scarred man in the South Pacific made for the hauntingly +appealing beauty of the most interesting woman, and strange--more than +passing strange--in that there was none who could say that their +relations were ever other than those of mistress and servant. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + THE MASTERPIECE + + +The third day after the _Mambare_ sailed found me southbound for +Sydney, with Paris as my ultimate objective. The thought that a +striking--possibly a great--picture might be painted about the face I +had already done came to me the first time I threw back the veiling rug +and encountered poor Allen's terror-haunted eyes staring back into my +own. In deciding to finish the work in Paris I missed whatever chance I +might have had of doing something really worth while. That I did finally +complete a picture that was striking, arresting--something to set the +tongues of the art world wagging for many a day--was due to the effort I +had already made--The Face. + +With small chance of being able to do anything for Hartley Allen--at +that time believed to be permanently insane,--there was no reason for my +remaining longer in Townsville. As nothing that the good Chief of Police +had learned--or ever did learn, so far as I know--was calculated to +connect me with his failure to run Ranga to earth, he, naturally made no +objection to my leaving. The whole affair was a complete mystery to him. +The disappearance of Rona was rated only as a minor mystery. The amusing +part of it was that it never occurred to the dear man to connect the +two. The last thing that I fixed my glass upon as my southbound boat +steamed out of the harbour was a confused mass of wreckage, blurring +darkly against the mangroves a few miles north of the town. It was all +that the late storm had left of the grounded labour schooner, _Cora +Andrews_. + +Missing the P. & O. boat by twenty-four hours at Melbourne--too late to +overtake it by train to Adelaide,--I found the next sailing was a +_Messageries Maritime_ steamer. Rather than wait a week for the next +Orient liner, I booked for the French boat. This was all against my +better judgment, especially in the light of the fact that I had work +ahead. The one most effective influence I had known in keeping my use of +absinthe at a point where it was not entirely beyond my control was the +scathing if unspoken contempt of men of my own race for another of that +race addicted to the insidious Latin habit. The nearest thing to a clean +break-away I had ever made up to this time came after a stony-faced +Cockney steward on a transatlantic Cunarder, who had put my +whisky-drunken cabin-mate to bed one night as a matter of course, +slammed the door with a snort when he surprised me pouring absinthe into +cracked ice the following afternoon. In France, in French colonies, on +French steamers--wherever the tri-colour flapped, in short--that +restraining contempt was non-existent. There one found palliation, +indulgence, even encouragement. That was the reason I had always become +so abject a slave of the "Green Lady" during my sojourns in Paris, in +Algiers, in Saigon, in Noumea. With no one to remind me of my shame, I +forgot it, sinking ever lower and lower the while. This time, it had +been my plan so to occupy myself with work on my picture in Paris that I +should be able to keep my absinthe appetite just about where I had +managed to hold it during the last six months in Kai and Australia. It +is quite possible I might have kept to this program had I caught the P. +& O. from Melbourne, or had the sense to wait for another British boat. +As it was, five weeks of _dolce far niente_ were too much for me. By the +time we reached Suez, I was seeing so green that the desert banks of the +Canal looked like verdant lawns to me, and at Marseilles they took me +straight from the ship to the hospital, pretty well all in mentally and +physically. As my case presented some interesting complications of +malaria and tropical anaemia, the doctors took a good deal of interest +in it. Under the circumstances, I was dead lucky to get out of their +hands at the end of a month. + +Thoroughly disgusted with the world in general and myself in particular +on the day I was discharged from the hospital, it was a toss-up for a +few hours as to whether I should jump out for the Islands by the first +boat, or push on to Paris. That I finally plumped for the latter was due +more to the fact that there was no east-bound sailing for a couple of +days, than to any faith that remained in my ability to get on with the +picture. Considering all this, it seems to me that the effort I finally +did pull myself together for was fairly creditable in its results. + +It was The Face itself--after I had unpacked and set up the canvas in a +studio that a former friend kindly placed at my disposal--that was +responsible for finally jolting me into action. Even at the end of ten +weeks, Hartley Allen's tortured features seemed as real to me as on the +night I had finished transferring them from my burning brain to the +canvas. It struck me then--as it seemed to strike the public later--as +the nearest thing to flesh and blood ever flicked off the tip of an +artist's brush; and I felt that I had only to daub in some kind of an +_ensemble_ around it to have a work that would at least give Parisian +art circles something to talk about for a while. + +It seemed to me that the most effective thing to do would be to make +Allen, lashed to the schooner's wheel, the central and dominating figure +on the canvas, and to have the other figures the creatures of his +imagination--the phantoms conjured up by his reeling brain. These would +include Bell, Rona, Ranga and a background of plague-stricken niggers. +It was not to be--as we had planned the "Black-birder"--an attempt to +portray some incident of the voyage. The "phantoms" were to be done in +greys and blues, filmy and indistinct, to differentiate them from the +solider flesh of the maniac tied to the wheel. It was not an uneffective +conception, had I been up to carrying it out--which I wasn't. + +By a remarkable coincidence, as I have already mentioned, The Face was +in exactly the right place to fit into the _ensemble_ I had planned. +This was a good omen and I derived no little encouragement from it. +Fearful of the effect that terror-stricken gaze might have upon my +models, I stuck an opaque square of paper over the distorted features, +with the intention of leaving it there until the rest of the picture was +finished. This was a wise precaution, as the sequel proved. + +The model whom I chanced to secure to pose for Allen's figure was an +especially fortunate choice. He had recently finished spending six or +eight hours a day lashed to a hollow canvas cross in connection with a +mural decoration at some cathedral--Sacre Coeur, I believe it was,--so +he stood up rather well under the strain being triced to the property +steering-gear I had contrived to borrow from the _Folies-Bergere_, where +the "marine" _revue_ in which it had figured was just over. Considering +the fact that I had never done anything but seascapes and was notably +weak in anatomy, my work on this figure was far from being as bad as +might have been expected. It was not seriously out of drawing, and, even +with The Face covered up, one was conscious of an unmistakable +suggestion of agony in the tensely-strained limbs and back-drawn torso. +From the artistic side, I would undoubtedly have done better to have +trimmed down my canvas and limited the picture to this single figure. +This, however, never occurred to me until a long time afterwards. At the +moment, my mind was quite incapable of running away from the track on +which I had started it. + +Although I knew that one of the things that must have been in +Hartley Allen's mind was Bell's face, as he had described it to +me--pain-twisted, with the lower lip bitten clean through, and a bar of +light from the cracked binnacle slashing across it,--I could not bring +myself to attempt to dramatize the sufferings of my friend. (Indeed, +even at that time I had a guilty feeling that I was not doing the decent +thing in using that of Allen in a picture to be exhibited to the +public.) All that I did in Bell's case, therefore, was a back view of a +huddled figure, sitting on the rail of the cockpit, with a half-empty +whisky bottle rolling on the deck behind. It was not destined to draw +much attention or comment one way or the other, for which I was duly +thankful. + +Ranga, as a consequence of being unable to find a model that would do +him justice, I finally omitted. Rona came near to elimination for a +similar reason, but in her case fortune, in the end, was more kind. It +may be remembered that there was a so-called Hindu dancer leading the +Oriental ballets at the _Comique_ about this time. She was really an +Eurasian half-caste--the daughter of a British "Tommy" and a Mahratta +girl, born in Poona. With little of Rona's beauty of face and +winsomeness of manner, she was still possessed of the same flaming +temperament and a figure that might have been poured from the same +mould. It was the lithe, sinewy, serpentine shape of her that caught my +eye when I chanced to drop in at the _Comique_ for a matinee of +_Marouf_, and (as she was still a few strokes short of the crest of the +wave of popularity on which she rode for the next season or two), I had +little difficulty in persuading her to give me a few sittings. She +insisted she was doing it for art's sake, but it was really vanity that +brought her into line. Also, as transpired shortly, she had a very sharp +weather eye for the main chance. In any event, the picture proved both +her immediate making and her ultimate undoing. The advertising she got +out of the fact that her living, breathing likeness had been painted +into the most talked-about picture at the spring _Salon_ of the _Societe +Nationale des Beaux-Arts_ doubled and trebled her salary several times +in the course of the next year. But it was also a reproduction of that +same picture in a Vienna art journal that was directly responsible for +luring to Paris the young Serbian ex-prince who chopped the girl to +pieces with a curved Arabian scimitar--a part of her dancing toggery--as +she was dressing to go on at a gala night of _Aida_. + +It had been my original intention to paint Rona issuing from the +companionway, just as Allen had seen her rush out on the morning Bell +died. This, however, was far from meeting with the approval of Keeora +(that was what she called herself at the time; it was only in her +hey-day that she was known as Kismeta), who insisted upon breaking in +full length or not at all. I was so sodden with absinthe by this time, +so sick of the whole job, so anxious to get quit of it for good, that I +raised no objections. The flighty thing proposed a sort of near-aerial +posture on the deck-house that was something like a cross between the +wing-footed Mercury and one of Puck's getaways in Midsummer Night's +Dream. Rather than lose the girl outright, I let her have her own way. +Steadied by two or three convenient guy-wires and puffing contentedly at +one of my hemp-doped cigarettes, she held her painful pose with a +fortitude truly Oriental. I can see yet the queer little heart-shaped +pucker that dented the muscle-knotted calf of her leg when she swung up +to the tips of her toes. + +I fancy it must have been a certain appeal the audacious minx made to my +physical senses that prodded on my flagging energies. Everything that +was left in me I devoted to making her absurd conception effective on +its own account. To make it so as an integral part of the picture was, +of course, out of the question. It is still a matter of a good deal of +wonder to me that I succeeded as well as I did. The pirouetting figure +on the _Cora's_ deck-house might just as well have symbolized _Peter +Pan_, or _The Spirit of Spring_, as _Rona Rampant_; but the fact +remained that it was exceedingly pleasing to the eye. In this connection +I thought an American tourist--from somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon +Line by his accent--expressed himself rather well. I overheard the +remark on my first and only visit to the _Salon_. "If that little filly +doan leave off kickin' up so neah them buck niggahs," he drawled, +"things ah suah fixin' fo' a lynchin' pa'ty. By cracky, if she doan look +good enuf to eat!" + +It was "them big buck niggahs" that were responsible for bringing my +labours to a sudden end. I had managed to round up a half-dozen hulking +Senegambians from the docks at Havre to pose for my plague-stricken +Solomon Islanders, and for the first two or three days things went very +well. I was striving for a sort of Dore-esque effect, by painting a +tangled bunch of blacks writhing in the half-light of the shadowed waist +of the schooner. The lazy brutes found lolling round on the studio floor +a deal more congenial work than humping cotton bales, and I was getting +on very encouragingly considering my wretched condition, when one of the +prying rascals, taking advantage of a moment when my back was turned, +turned down a corner of the patch that hid the face of the man lashed to +the wheel. What damage was wrought was inflicted on such flimsy +furniture as chanced to be in a direct line of flight from the "models' +throne" to the door. Fortunately, the canvas was well to one side. The +Senegalese, it seems, have a raw, red terror of the "Evil Eye." + +That little episode brought to an end my work with models. I simply +blocked in my plague-stricken blacks in a rough sort of way and let it +go at that. The effect was hardly as crude as one would think. The +remark of the Southern gentleman I have quoted proved that a man not +unfamiliar with niggers could at least distinguish of what the tangle in +the waist was intended to be made up. + +I have definite recollection of only one further occasion on which I +tried to work. The interval in which I had anything approximating +command of my normal faculties had dwindled to a half-hour or so in the +afternoon, and I quickly found that I was utterly unable to concentrate +my mind sufficiently for connected effort even then. On the occasion I +have mentioned, I knocked off dead after discovering that I was trying +to decorate Keeora's brow with the wreath of maiden's hair fern that had +crowned the aviating "Green Lady" in her flight of the night before. I +chucked in my hand complete after that, and had the whole monkey-show +packed off to the Selection Committee. As might have been expected, the +picture nearly caused a riot in that temperamental bunch of "pickers," +but, in the end, The Face won the day with them, just as it did with the +public. + +Of the furore created by "_Hell's Hatches_" in the _Salon_ it will +hardly be necessary for me to write. Most of the excitement it stirred +up was traceable to the haunting horror of the face of the wretch tied +to the wheel; the rest was due to its name, which only suggested itself +to me at the last moment. Perhaps the fact that everyone was baffled +from the outset in trying to discover the _motif_ of the bizarre thing +also contributed to the impulse of the whirlpool of morbid curiosity +with which it was engulfed. And who could blame them for failing to +discover any connection between a tied-up maniac, a hunched-up drunkard, +a kicking-up dancer and a bunch of tangled-up niggers? The avalanche of +surmises would have been highly diverting had not my sense of humour +already fallen a victim to the apathy that was rapidly settling upon my +mind and body. + +My outstanding recollection of the whole affair is of a highly effective +by-play staged by that keen little publicist, Keeora, who had become a +bit piqued over the slowness of the Press to broadcast the identity of +the lady dancing on the deck-house. Utterly indifferent, I had avoided +the _Grand Palais_ not only on the opening day of the _Salon_, but also +during the week that followed, when it was reported that the _Avenue +Alexander III_ was at times blocked with the throngs striving to get +within sight of the most intriguing picture shown in years. My telephone +was disconnected; telegrams and letters by the stacks lay unopened; a +pile of newspapers were unread. Growing more sullen and sodden day by +day, I had eyes for nothing but the green bottle at my elbow and the +constantly replenished glass of cracked ice by its side. All the rest of +the world was one soft, verdant tunnel--nothing else. I had been +drinking steadily for days, afraid to face the reaction that must +inevitably follow the first break in the continuity of the flow of the +life-saving trickle of green. + +In a way, I suppose, it is Keeora I have to thank for the fact that, +when I finally left my room in the _Continental_, it was to be headed +for the _Grand Palais_ instead of to _La Morgue_. I am quite convinced +that nothing short of the violent eruption of hysteria that soulful lady +brought off outside my door would have induced me to open it, and +probably no one else in Paris could have been equal to just that kind of +an outburst. In passionate French-Cockney, Keeora told how, after +failing for days to reach me by 'phone and telegraph, she had at last +come in person to bear me to the _Salon_ to share with her our common +triumph. That didn't move me greatly, but when she swore that she was +going to stay until she "jolly well croaked, G'bly'me," unless I let her +in, something inside of my head snapped and I gave way. (I always was +like that with hysterical women.) When I opened the door I discovered +that she was dressed in some Mogul princess sort of a rigout, and +accompanied by an Italian _Marchesa_ and two or three lesser satellites. +Between them and my valet they got me dressed and down to a waiting +carriage. + +To get away from the mob at the main entrance, they took me around to +the _Avenue d'Antin_ side of the _Grand Palais_, where Keeora pointed +out with glee that the _Salon_ of the _Societe des Artistes Francais_, +which had opened a week or two previous to that of the _Beaux-Arts_ +outfit, was almost deserted. "_Et tout, mon cher Monseer W'itney, por +raison de--de la grand success de 'Aykootillys don fur.'_" + +"And what might they be?" I asked dully, rather fancying some new sort +of epidemic had broken out. + +"Madame means to say '_Ecoutilles d'Enfer_,'" began the _Marchesa_ +politely; "eet--eet ees--" + +"Eat your bloomin' 'at!" cut in the lady impatiently, indignant that +anyone could be so stupid as to have her Parisian interpreted to him. +"Don't you twig me, old cock? That's wot them French Jo'nnys calls +'Ell's 'Atches." + +The picture was extremely well hung, both for position and light; though +whether this had come about as a consequence of a reshuffle after it had +turned out to be the main drawing card, I did not learn. There was a +roped-off area in front of it, and through this a number of perspiring +attendants were feeding the crowd, working hard with tongue and hand to +keep the chattering line in motion. Keeora called my attention to a +woman who had fainted and was being carried out on a stretcher. "Bowls +'em over just like that right along," she giggled. "Six of 'em squealed +and keeled back just w'ile I was 'angin' on 'ere yustidy. But it ain't +_me_ wot gets 'em," she hastened to explain; "it's that crazy bloke at +the w'eel, wiv 'is bloomin' eyes borin' right through your chest an' +raspin' up an' down your spine. Don't see wot you wanted to put _'im_ in +for any'ow." + +At a word from Keeora's sedulous satellites, the attendants opened up a +line through the mob and cleared a space in front of the picture. Then, +assuring herself with a critically comprehensive glance that the setting +was all correct, she rushed in, threw her arms around my neck, kissed me +smackingly on both cheeks, French-fashion, and began declaiming in her +best Parisio-Whitechapel how I had earned her undying gratitude and +affection (_mon amours eternel_) in making her the central figure in the +greatest work of art of modern times. It was all extremely well +done--from Keeora's standpoint, that is. She had a solid phalanx of +reporters massed in the background, as a consequence of which, after the +next morning, there was no chance for anyone to remain longer in +ignorance of the fact that the nymph hot-footing around the coamings of +"Hell's Hatches" was Keeora of the _Comique_. The following Saturday the +management came round voluntarily to her hotel with a new contract worth +several thousand francs a week to their rising _danseuse orientale_. + +For myself, groggy in head and knees as I was, the experience was rather +trying. Breaking away from her stranglehold at the first opportunity, I +told Keeora to keep her "eternel amours" for those who wanted them, and +bolted. There was some pretence at pursuit, but, with the real magnet +drawing in the other direction, I finally managed to elbow clear. +Hailing a cab in the _Champs-Elysees_, I returned to my hotel. + +But the interruption, as I have said, was a fortunate one. It checked my +downward slide dangerously near the point where a crash was due. I was +far from being out of the woods yet, but the interval of comparative +lucidity had given me enough courage to try to pull up. Unloading all +the firearms I had about my suite and giving them to my man, I told him +to go away for the night and not to return until noon of the following +day. Then, as restrainedly as I could, I drank during the first three or +four hours of the evening, before allowing myself to go to sleep. The +crisis--the dread reaction I had feared to face--I knew would come on +awakening in the morning. It arrived on schedule--two hours of teetering +on the edge of hell and cursing myself for putting the guns beyond my +reach. Even with the _absintheteur's notorious_ dread of cold steel, I +fingered Hartley Allen's Portuguese throwing-knife a long time before +mustering up the courage to drop it out of the street window. That gave +me a new idea, and I held lengthy debate with myself about following the +knife to the pavement. If I had been on the fourth floor instead of the +second, I might have tried it. As it was, fifteen feet to a glass +marquee didn't look good enough. But at last I won through--just. It was +a sorry looking figure that shivered back at me from the mirror after I +had got up my nerve to ring for a pot of black coffee at seven; but I +was off the toboggan, at any rate, with my face set unflinchingly toward +the one place in the world where I felt there was at least a fighting +chance for me to pull up again. I had arrived at the end of the day of +which I had dreamed so long--"My Day," I had called it. Paris had come +fawning to my feet--and brought me Dead Sea Fruit. I was going back to +work out my own salvation in the Islands. + +I had a rather trying time of it, getting packed up and away on such +short notice; but I simply did what I could and let the rest go. Putting +Paris behind me was the thing. It took all that was in me to do it, but +I caught the Brindisi Express from the P.L.M. station that night. + +My last act before leaving the hotel was to sign a paper brought there +by a well-known art dealer, with whom I had talked by 'phone earlier in +the day. It authorized him to sell to the highest bidder a painting in +oil known by the name of "Hell's Hatches," delivery to be made +immediately after the closing of the spring _Salon_ of the _Societe +Nationale des Beaux-Arts_. It also provided that he should receive a +liberal commission for his services. It must have been something like a +month later that he collected ten per cent. on three hundred thousand +_francs_ less about five hundred paid some second-rate artist for +executing a slight alteration in one of the figures. It was a petty +Sultan from Morocco (high card with Keeora at the moment) to whom the +picture was knocked down after a spirited run of bidding with an Irish +distiller and a Chicago soap-maker. The buyer's only condition was that +the man lashed to the wheel should be changed to a _burnoused_ Arab. +That would tend to give the picture an atmosphere more in keeping with +his desert palace, he said; also, he wanted the _efrangi's_ face covered +up. The eyes made him jumpy. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + AFTER ALL + + +I had not planned by what route I should go to the South Seas, and it +was only because an Orient-Pacific liner chanced to be the most +convenient connection at Brindisi that I went by Australia instead of by +India and Singapore. I was rather glad, on the whole, that I was going +to have an opportunity to learn something at first-hand of Hartley +Allen--or, Sir Hartley, as he had become since I left Australia. That +much I had been able to gather from an item I had read in _The Times_ +shortly after my arrival in Paris. This stated that Sir James Allen, +Bart., Agent in London for New South Wales, had just died of pneumonia. +Being without male issue, it was understood that the title would pass to +his younger brother, formerly a well-known racing man, and more recently +in the public eye through his heroic action in navigating a labour +schooner full of plague-stricken blacks through the Great Barrier Reef +to Queensland. + +Nothing was said in the local item of the outrage aboard the _Cora +Andrews_, but the day following a dispatch from Sydney stated that Sir +Hartley Allen was recovering his health and strength at a sanitarium in +the interior, from which, however, it was not expected that he would be +in a condition to be discharged for several months. The shock to his +nervous system from the mysterious attack upon him in Townsville three +months previously had been so great that only time could obliterate the +traces of it. He had not yet been allowed to see any of his old friends, +but the correspondent affirmed on good authority that Sir Hartley's +reason, so long despaired of, had been fully regained. + +From the fact that the attack was still spoken of as "mysterious," I +took it that Allen, for some reason of his own, had refrained from +revealing the identity of the person who had left him to die lashed to +the wheel of the _Cora_. What that reason might be, was one of the +things I hoped to learn when I should see him in Australia. + +Hartley Allen was still in a sanitarium in the Blue Mountains, I learned +on my arrival in Sydney, but of late there had been little news of him. +He was believed to be getting stronger, slowly but surely, though no +hope was held out that he would appear in the saddle again for at least +another season. It was unlikely that I would be permitted to see him, +but there would be no harm in trying. I should, of course, communicate +with his physicians, not with Allen himself. + +By a lucky chance, in wiring the head of the institution where Allen was +under treatment, I stated that I was a former friend of his from the +Islands. A reply arrived the same day, telling me to come on at my +earliest convenience. The eminent nerve specialist in charge of the case +drove down to meet me at the train. It was very fortunate indeed, he +said, that I had mentioned in my telegram that I had known Sir Hartley +during his residence in Melanesia. He had failed, very stupidly, to +recognize my name as that of the famous artist who was about to paint +Sir Hartley's picture when the attack upon him occurred. As a +consequence, he was about to wire a refusal to my application, when he +recalled that news from the Islands was the one thing in which his +patient had shown any great interest. Accordingly, he had asked Sir +Hartley himself if he cared to see a certain Roger Whitney, lately +arrived in Sydney. The eager interest manifested by his patient was the +most encouraging symptom the latter had shown since his mind had +cleared. If I would carefully refrain from introducing any subject +calculated to excite Sir Hartley nervously, he was confident that my +visit would be productive of nothing but good. It was even possible, +should it prove convenient to me, that he would want me to remain for +several days. Sir Hartley was quite sound in brain and body. What he +needed was increased vigour of both, and to this end he would have to +develop a greater interest in living than he had yet shown. It was just +possible there was something on his mind.... + +After leaving my coat and bag in the reception-room, the doctor led me +out across a bright solarium. We would find Sir Hartley out of doors, he +said, probably playing polo. He seemed to hate the very thought of +having a roof over him, even to sleep under. It was a strange sight that +met my eyes as we came round the corner of the veranda. In the shade of +a grove of blue-gums and stringy-barks a wooden horse had been erected, +saddled with a light pigskin, and provided with snaffle and curb reins +running back from the angling bit of board that served as "head." +Astride the saddle, in the famous short-stirruped "Slant" Allen seat, +booted, spurred, and in immaculate whites, slashing smartly at +grass-stained and dented bamboo-root balls that were alternately tossed +in and chivied by a pair of bare-footed youngsters, was a familiar +figure. Save for the white hair (which I had already seen) and the +absence of the former coat of tan, he did not, from a distance, appear +greatly changed. It was not until his eyes met mine at close range that +I was conscious of the weary listlessness which, like a bed of ashes, +smothered the coals of his old fire. + +Allen had just poked away the first of two successively thrown balls in +a sweet-running dribble, and sliced off the other in a sharp-angling +"belly cross," when he raised his eyes and caught sight of the doctor +and me coming down the steps. Swinging a bit uncertainly out of the +saddle, he came toddling in a swaying childlike trot across the grass. +His grip was firmer than I had expected, and the thought flashed through +my mind that this was the very first time I had ever shaken hands with +him. + +"I've been wondering when you were going to turn up, Whitney," he +exclaimed eagerly. "There's something I've been waiting to talk to you +about." He spoke in generalities while the doctor lingered, saying that +he had given up his old idea of returning to the Islands, and that, +instead, he was hoping to get away before long to a back-blocks station +he owned and ride the boundaries for a year or two. But when the +specialist, evidently assured that his experiment was getting under way +properly, quietly excused himself, Allen led me over to the wooden horse +and launched at once into a subject which had doubtless occupied his +mind for many days. From ancient habit he leaned, as he spoke, now on +the hollow pigskin of his "pony," now on the flexible Malacca handle of +his polo mallet. + +"You're the only man in the world I can talk to about this now, +Whitney," he said with a queer new quaver of weakness in his voice. "I +suppose that's because you're the only person I ever talked to about +it--before. I take it, Whitney, that you had no great difficulty in +making up your mind as to who was responsible for--for my night of +contemplation on the _Cora_?" + +"Well," I began evasively, "I had such grave doubts about Ranga's guilt +that I went to some little trouble to get him away. Mostly old 'Choppy' +Tancred's work, though." + +"Good old 'Choppy'!" said Allen with an appreciative grin; "on hand at +the right time as usual." Then, with serious interest: "But the +girl--how did she manage to get clear?" + +"Just turned up and helped herself to a place in the launch I was +sending Ranga off in," I replied, a bit worried at my failure to lead +the conversation away from subjects "calculated to excite Sir Hartley +nervously." + +"And you were also convinced of _her_ innocence, I suppose," he said, +eyeing me with a strange smile across the leather-bound handle of his +mallet. + +"On the contrary," I answered; "I knew that she was guilty. I had taken +your throwing-knife away from her the same night. I knew that Ranga was +quite innocent, even though the police, through a silly ball-up, tracked +him down with their dogs." + +"Then why did you let the girl go?" he pressed. + +"Because I thought I knew Rona well enough," I replied evenly, "to feel +sure that she wouldn't have done--what she did, unless she was convinced +in her own mind that she had a good reason for it." It was a stiff jolt +for a sick man, that; yet, for the life of me, I couldn't have made an +evasive answer. + +But there was a smile of untold relief on Allen's face as he leaned over +and laid his hand on my arm. "You were right, Whitney," he said in a +voice that trembled with the depth of its fervour. "You were right. She +_did_ have good reason. I ought to have seen it all along." + +"I don't quite understand," I said, greatly puzzled. "Do you mean that +all you told me about your--your having nothing to do with Bell's death +was not true?" + +"Not at all," he replied, with unexpected vigour. "Everything that I +told you that afternoon at the _Australia_ was true--according to my +understanding of the moment, I mean. But later my understanding +broadened a bit, you must know. A chap doesn't spend a night tied up +alone with the spirits of three or four white men, and Gawd knows how +many blacks, without coming to comprehend some things that have eluded +him before. I didn't go all the way off my chump till well along toward +morning, you see; and I was broadening my understanding all the time." + +"I was never able to make out," I remarked somewhat irrelevantly, "how +the girl managed to get the best of you the way she did." + +"Oh, that," he said lightly, in a voice that indicated he rated it as a +negligible incidental to the "broader understanding" that had come to +him as a consequence. "Well, I suppose you have a right to know if you +are interested in that phase of the affair. I simply got tired of +holding out against the girl, that was all. Her relentlessness wore me +down. It was not long after our return to Townsville that I realized +that her picture stunt was only a blind. She counted on it to get me +away to the schooner, where she could finish me off on the scene of--of +my offence. I won't need to tell you that hit me jolly hard. Training +out Yusuf and making a clean-up for Doc Oakes' mission with him helped +while it lasted; but I gave up as soon as that was over and there was +nothing to do but wait and brood. Since I knew she'd have her way in the +end, I told myself that the sooner it was over the better. That was the +reason I finally consented to go off to the schooner with her when she +waylaid me on the north road, the day after I paid you my last visit. + +"She must have planned the whole thing in advance for the place at which +she intercepted me was at the point where the road ran nearest to the +wreck of the _Cora_. As it was low tide, we were able to walk on the +sand to within fifty yards of the heeling hulk. Careless of consequences +as I was, I readily enough consented to her suggestion that I wade the +remainder of the way, carrying her in my arms. For the rest, it was more +or less of repetition of her little coup at Kai. She pinched the knife +from my belt while I was wading out with her, keeping it carefully out +of sight while we were walking round the deck of the schooner. I missed +it presently, but thought it had fallen from its sheath while I was +clambering over the side. Leaning over to look for the knife in the +water, I felt the point of it on my neck. Same old place--just over the +jugular. Trick she learned from the Malays. + +"I told her to hurry up and get the job over. She coolly replied that +this wasn't the place she had had in mind for it, and would I mind +coming aft to the cockpit? Confident that she knew how to do the thing +with decency and dispatch, and heartily glad to get life's fitful dream +over anyhow, I went. Just like a lamb to the slaughter, Whitney. It +sounds foolish, but I assure you that's just the way it happened. The +idea was so fixed in my mind that a plain every-day throat-cutting was +all she was figuring on, that I let her get three or four hitches of the +log-line around my shoulders before it occurred to me that she might +have a few refinements in pickle. I started to put up a fight at that, +trying to force her to use the knife straightaway. Do you think she +would do it? No fear. She wouldn't deviate from her set program by a +hair. Rather than risk having the joint jolted into my jugular so that I +would bleed to death quickly and painlessly, she dropped the knife and +used both hands on the log-line. We had a hell of a tussle, Whitney, but +she wore me down. Those three or four well-thrown hitches she had to +start with were too much of a handicap. + +"When she finally had me bound fast, she sat down on the rail of the +cockpit to recover her breath. I tried to argue with her, pointing out +the certainty that I would be seen and rescued in the morning if she +left me as I was; whereas, if she would cut my throat then and there, it +would finish things for good and all. I also reminded her that dead men +tell no tales; that she would be much less likely to get into trouble +herself if there was no one to bear witness against her. (Fancy a man +having to rack his brain for arguments like that, just to get his throat +cut, Whitney.) The girl admitted the soundness of my contentions, but +declared she was willing to run all the extra risk for the sake of +cleaning up the job 'good an' propa.' (One of Bell's expressions, that, +wasn't it?) + +"Then--I must have begun losing my nerve a bit, I think--I told her I +had never yet been able to twig why she had a grudge against me at all; +said I'd only done for Bell what I'd be jolly glad to have another man +do for me under similar circumstances, and probably a lot more twaddle +along the same line. She listened for a while, as though she rather +enjoyed hearing me rattle on in that vein. Then she got up and +disappeared down the half-open companionway. When she came back on deck +she had an empty whisky bottle in her hand, probably one of a stack left +in my cabin. This, with some effort on her part and much to my further +discomfort, she wriggled under the lashings about my chest until she +seemed satisfied it was held securely. Then, binding a filthy gag of +oakum in my mouth, she stood off and looked me over critically. 'I +the-enk you will twe-ig ver-ee much pu-retty soon, Mista "Slan',"' she +finally chirruped with a knowing nod of her head. Without once looking +back, she stepped to the side, jumped over, and waded ashore. I never +saw her again--in the flesh, I mean. It took a deal of squirming to +shake that bottle out. The satisfaction of hearing it break when it hit +the deck was the only comforting thing that happened in the whole +night." + +"And you say that you understand why she did it?--that you believe she +was justified?" I exclaimed incredulously, shuddering at the horror of a +cold-blooded cruelty that even Allen's deliberately matter-of-fact +recital could not obscure. + +"Most assuredly," he replied with an enigmatic smile. "I'm just a bit +surprised that you don't see it yourself, Whitney. It seems to me that a +chap like you ought not to miss a point like that. But then, you haven't +had a night alone on the _Cora Andrews_ to broaden your understanding +like I have." + +"What was it?" I asked bluntly, completely mystified and not a little +awed. + +"Just this," he answered, growing suddenly serious. "That bottle I +shoved along to Bell the night he died had been partly emptied--by me, +of course. Well, the first thought that entered the girl's head, when +she came across it on the deck near his body, was that he had been +drinking from it. In spite of all my assurances to the contrary, it +seems that she was never able to rid her mind of that idea. That was--" + +"But couldn't she see _why_ you offered him the whisky?" I interrupted. +"What if he did drink some of it? She must have known it was the one +thing that would have saved his life." + +"Ah, that is just where you miss the point, Whitney," he cried. "And +that was just where I always missed it until--she showed me the way to a +broader understanding. Don't you see that Rona realized that keeping +away from whisky, as he had sworn he would, had come to mean more to +Bell than even a new lease on life? Well, she did. But, even so, one +would hardly have expected her to fall in with the idea. And yet, don't +her actions prove that she even did that? Whitney, I've never come +across anything comparable to the straight physical passion of those two +for each other. And, if anything, hers was the hotter flame of the two. +There must have been something of the impetuousness of her rages in her +loving,--for.... Well, the most maddening of all the thoughts I tried so +long to stifle in Kai was the one that those frequent welts and +abrasions appearing on Bell's neck and cheeks and arms were not from the +bites of no-nos or mosquitoes. And yet, loving his body like that, she +loved his soul enough more to be willing to give up the body that the +soul might pass in peace. It was because she thought I had intervened to +destroy that peace of soul, Whitney, that she--well, the effect of it +was to pave the way to my broader understanding." + + + THE END + + + WOODS & SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, LONDON, N. 1. + + + + + Transcriber Notes: + +Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. + +Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. + +Throughout the document, the [oe] ligature was replaced with "oe". + +Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of +the speakers. Those words were retained as-is. + +Errors in punctuation and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected +unless otherwise noted. + +On page 34, "dispayed" was replaced with "displayed". + +On page 67, "skin-kicking" was replaced with "shin-kicking". + +On page 74, an apostrophe was added in 'Slan'. + +On page 102, "Ulupua" was replaced with "Utupua". + +On page 159, a period was added after "he was going through". + +On page 176, "its" was replaced with "it's". + +On page 188, a quotation mark was added before "On the off chance". + +On page 203, "at the botton" was replaced with "at the bottom". + +On page 205, "twentyfive" was replaced with "twenty-five". + +On page 233, "back of the easel" was replaced with "back off the easel". + +On page 238, "in no may" was replaced with "in no way". + +On page 241, "ejaculted" was replaced with "ejaculated". + +On page 246, "Marbare" was replaced with "Mambare". + +On page 282, "firsthand" was replaced with "first-hand". + +On page 285, "listnessness" was replaced with "listlessness". + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hell's Hatches, by Lewis Ransome Freeman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HELL'S HATCHES *** + +***** This file should be named 44632.txt or 44632.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/6/3/44632/ + +Produced by Greg Bergquist, Ernest Schaal, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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